The Ocean and the Moon
Marcus wouldn’t go to Golden Cove Retirement Center, if it wasn’t an assignment on a school field trip. He knew he could make up a story about the “good old days” and turn that in. Ms. Roberts wouldn’t know the difference.
But he couldn’t get out of this - a field trip, with Ms. Roberts assigning the old man to him.
He wasn’t actually prepared for the interview, hadn’t thought of questions, but Sarah gave him a copy of hers, so he’d be OK.
Mr. Rayburn just woke from a nap in the easy chair when Marcus walked into his room.
“Hey, young fellow!” His shaking hand extended toward Marcus. He shook it, feeling the tremors.
“Hi. It’s good to see you.” Marcus didn’t really mean that, but it was what he was expected to say. “I’m Marcus.”
“Welcome, Marcus! Come to talk with me a while? I don’t get many visitors.”
“Yeah.” Marcus looked around the barren room. Nothing on the walls, an empty table, a blue bedspread on the bed, an easy chair, and a metal folding one. The window looked at a brick wall. “Yeah,” he repeated. He took Sarah‘s list from his pocket and unfolded it.
Mr. Rayburn dutifully answered his simple questions. Marcus didn’t really learn anything interesting, but hadn’t expected to. He got the basic information and got up to leave.
“Do you like fishing, Marcus?” Mr. Rayburn’s unexpected question made Marcus turn back to the old man.
“Yeah. My granddad used to take me fishing. He’d go out at night and get the huge nightcrawler worms. We’d take his motor boat to the lake the next day. I started out using a drop line, a wooden board with a fishing line and hook, and then he taught me how to use a rod and reel. Every summer we went fishing.”
There was a spark in Mr. Rayburn‘s eyes that made Mark sit back down, facing him.
“Let me tell you something, Marcus. There’s a pond fed by a waterfall not too far out of town that has two magic Koi in it, healers they are. You have to call them - can’t fish for ‘em. I heard about them when I was a young lad, about 60 years ago. Always wished I went to see for myself.” It looked like he was getting worked up to tell something interesting so Marcus got out his paper and pen and started taking notes.
“There are two Koi. The black one is the ocean, dark, greedy, sometimes stormy, rarely placid. It needs the moon for Ocean Koi to feel generous.
“The white one is the moon. Moon is always kinder but weaker until the night of the full moon, when it’s powerful enough to keep Ocean in check.
“Go to the pool, call the Koi, ask for healing. Be sure to go on a full moon night. Be ready to give them your treasure.
“If you give them your treasure, you get it back. However, if you refuse or try to trick them, your treasure or your health is taken, and you can’t get it back.
“Remember that old saying- ‘All you have is what you have given away.’
“Be wary! Make sure the moon is full. Don’t try to trick the Koi - they will know.”
He looked off at the blank wall, as if he could see something. Marcus waited, letting the old man think…
“My uncle tried to trick them once, long ago. He told the Koi that he had a bad back. Thought it would be a joke. Said his treasure was his guitar– and brought a cheap guitar toy. The Koi told him to swim in the waters at the base of the waterfall. He thought it was a lark. He twisted his back in those waters – it hurt him ever since. That cheap guitar wasn’t his treasure either. I don’t know which made the Koi mad – The lying about his sore back or the lying about his treasure. Maybe both.
“Granny Bertha, now - she went when her rheumatism got so bad she couldn’t clean her house. Her hands wouldn’t close around the broom handle or hold a dish to wash it.
“She went on the full moon, she said. Went down to the waters edge and called them fish. ‘Koi! Koi!’ She took my mom with her, and when they called for her treasure, Granny said she told those fish that Perty, my mom, was her treasure. The fish told her to dip in the pool three times. Granny did. The rheumatism just melted away into the water. My mom was right nervous, not knowing what the fish would do with her – but those fish just asked her to dip her hands in the water and they kissed her fingers. Just came up to her and kissed them with their mouths on her fingertips. They gave her back. Told Granny to take Perty home.”
Marcus filled page after page with notes. He was startled when the intercom sounded up and down the hall, announcing that his class was to report to the bus, as it was time to go back to school.
“Thanks, Mr. Rayburn! You’ve helped me a lot today. I’ve got to get back to the bus.” Marcus hated to leave.
“That’s all right Marcus. Come back and see me again sometime. Mind what I said, though. If you ever find you need to talk with the Koi to get healed, don’t try to trick them. They’ll know.”
******
Marcus watched his twin sister, Ainsley, curl up on her bed in a dark room for days with headaches. She was so afraid of those migraines that she never went anywhere other than school. Ainsley was the only kid in the ninth grade that didn’t laugh when he gave his report…
******
On the next full moon night, Marcus and Ainsley crept through the vines and undergrowth of the forest, heading toward a pool of water, fed by a small waterfall.
“Are you sure this is the way?” Ainsley asked. “We’ve been walking for a half hour. I don’t know if the flashlight batteries are going to hold out… Oww!” Ainsley jumped back, pushing a wet vine from her face. “Watch it! That vine hit me right in the face. It just missed my eye!”
Marcus stopped, turning to face her, “Oh, sorry. I thought I heard spilling water ahead and I got excited. I forgot you were right behind me.”
“Water so close? I thought… Ouch! Something bit me! Some kind of animal, I think.” She stooped down to try to see her ankle.
Marcus bent down with his flashlight to see where she was looking. A few drops of blood began to seep where teeth had broken the skin. “That doesn’t look good. Did you bring the first aid kit?” He glanced around at the underbrush. “But, actually, let’s get moving. I think we should get out of this spot before we slap a Band-Aid on it.
“OK.” Maybe it didn’t hurt too bad, though the appearance of blood was rather alarming. “I probably shouldn’t have stopped. Let’s get moving… less of a target,” she suggested.
Finally they broke free of the woods, a full moon shone down on a small waterfall, and the water below it spread into a wide pool. The reflection of the moon rippled away from the waterfall.
Marcus’ eyes took in the scene as described by Mr. Rayburn. What was that strange thing he said… “You keep what you give away”. Something like that.
The ripples lapped gently at the grasses at the water’s edge. As reflected, the moon looked magnified in the middle of the pool.
Remembering the old man’s story he called out hoarsely, “Koi! Koi!” and waited. Nothing happened. He turned to Ainsley. “This could be the wrong one.”
“Let me try. Koi! Koi!” Her earnest plea seemed to stir the water. It churned. A deep rumble shook the air around them, causing cattails to dance in the silver moonlight. “Koi! Koi!” she called again.
In the moon’s reflection, the pool surface broke in a line of white and another of black. “Oh, Marcus!” She breathed, “They’re here!”
The Koi were huge! She couldn’t see their heads and tails at the same time, but she knew they were no ordinary fish size. They must be old!
“Daughter of Humans, why have you called us from our rest?”
Marcus felt the demanding question in the deep rumble of the dark Koi and knew Ainslie did too. But she did not speak, nor move.
The white Koi came near the water edge. “Sweet sister, do you need something? Touch my scales, then ask what you wish.” This rumble-speak was more gentle.
Ainsley squatted down and reached out her hand, her fingers caressing fish scales. She lifted her eyes to meet those of her brother. He nodded encouragement.
She turned back to the Koi, “Dear Koi, I don’t know if you can help. There are days when I cannot leave my bedroom - my head throbs mercilessly like a hammer pounding with no end. Any small light or sound worsens the attack. When this sickness comes, I find it hard to eat, hard to think, hard to live. I am often exhausted, and anxious, because it will happen again, and maybe soon.” Tears overflowed her eyes. “I want to disappear. In some way this must end. Can you help me?”
The Moon Koi reassured her, “Do not fear, young one. We can take away this pain. Tonight you should swim with us. We need to take you both to the ocean and to the moon.”
“Tonight?.. Like now?”
“We have much to do tonight to rid you of this sickness. Did you bring your treasure?”
Ainsley looked at her brother, “Nothing is more precious to me than my twin. Sometimes it seems he knows me more than I know myself. But I think you understand – being twins yourselves. My twin is my treasure. Yes, he’s here.”
“He will come, then, as he is now ours, but he should be silent. If he makes it through this night’s journeys, he will again be yours.” Moon Koi gave Marcus a discerning look, judging his willingness to comply. He nodded, silently.
“We must hurry to complete this journey before dawn. You need the pressure of the ocean and the softness of the moon. We start now! Jump in, as you are.” With two unhesitatingly splashes, the twins were beside the Koi in the water. “Follow.”
In this pool, they became fish with gills to breathe. They had to swim at top speed to keep up, heading toward a swirling dark spot in the pool floor.
As they neared the spinning black funnel, Marcus tried to cry out to tell Ainslie to slow. His mouth filled with water. Panic caused him to forget to use his gills. His tail thrashed wildly, catching Ainslie’s attention.
Alarmed, Ainslie rumble-spoke, sending tiny bubbles and vibrations to the Moon Koi, who turned and swam to Marcus with her mouth open wide. Her mouth completely covered Marcus’ head for a few seconds. Then she backed away. Marcus was breathing with gills again.
There wasn’t time to think about what had happened, as they were immediately being sucked into the dark swirling vortex of pool water. In a matter of seconds, they were expelled into a huge body of inky black water. A passing lantern fish informed them that they were in the deep dark ocean depths.
The four fish traveled upwards, swimming so quickly that Ainslie felt she was flying underwater. Schools of fish flashed past. The darkness became lighter, and lighter still as they zoomed toward the ocean surface.
After the darkness of the ocean, the brightness of the moonlight when they broke the surface was startlingly brilliant. But still they did not slow.
Ainslie became an arrow, with feathers on her tail, shot toward the moon, large and brilliant white. Breathing seemed no longer necessary. She could not turn her head, but saw from the edges of her vision that she was one of four arrows soaring high above the ocean, speeding to the moon.
It was like falling into a pillow, not at all what she expected, when Ainsley found herself implanted in the surface of that brilliant globe. She opened her eyes. (She must have closed them when she neared the moon.) She felt her arms, her legs, her completely wind blown hair! Marcus implanted beside her. Softness surrounded them.
A voice as quiet as a feather floated to them. “You must lift yourself now… and jump! Once back at the pool, you will be free of your affliction. You will be free…”
Alternately pulling each other, inch by inch the twins lifted themselves from the billowing pillow surface.
This next part would be tricky. How would they jump, and end up at the pool?
With nothing to push from, as the soft surface gave easily beneath their feet, they believed they could jump. And so they did. Their efforts proved to be enough. Sister and brother hurtled through the air again, straight as arrows.
As arrows, they shot into the pool. Ainsley and Marcus surfaced and swam to the grasses at the water’s edge, just as dawn broke.
******
When they arrived home, Marcus pulled the antibiotic ointment out of the medicine cabinet. “Better late than never,” he told Ainsley. “Let’s get that bite taken care of.”
Neither he nor she could find where it had been.
“Do you suppose…” he began, but in the brightness of the day, it seemed ridiculous to talk about magic fish. Had he dreamed it?
Ainsley seemed equally reluctant to mention the adventures of the night. However she never had another migraine. Her last three years of high school were full of after school clubs, dances, ball games, and cheerleading.
******
They say that on full moon nights, two koi splash at the water’s surface, sending ripples expanding throughout a pool, hidden within a forest.
Rose Alice White
June 11, 2025