Ocean: The Sea Warriors Read Online Free PDF Page A

gardeners said something to him, but he didn’t answer, so the men returned to work.
    “Good morning, Grandfather,” she said. Alicia wore a white blouse, tan shorts, and sandals. Her auburn hair was secured in a ponytail.
    He stared at her, didn’t say anything. With his shoulders slumped and his drooping facial features, the elderly gentleman looked sad, though she could not see his eyes behind the dark sunglasses.
    Motioning for her to walk with him on a garden path, he said, “I hear you’re renting an apartment over the general store.”
    “It’s a little noisy sometimes, but I’m getting used to it. The rent is very good.”
    “I see.”
    “Grandfather, you’re not going to believe what I have to tell you, but something incredible has happened to me. I want you to listen for a while before saying anything, all right?”
    He smiled ruefully. “It wouldn’t be the first time a woman has asked me to shut up. Your grandmother did it all the time.”
    “I don’t mean it that way.” She remembered her late Grandmother Hermione Ellsworth, how aloof and stuffy she’d been during visits to California when Alicia was a little girl. The woman had died of a rare form of cancer when Alicia was only nine.
    Now Alicia began what she wanted to say, telling her grandfather about the terrible plight of the ocean, how humans were fouling the waters with sewage and trash and oil, and that climate change caused by industrial and automobile emissions was contributing to the warming of the ocean and the deaths of coral reefs, and about the many species of sea life that had gone extinct (or were going extinct) from human-related causes, including overfishing.
    Finally pausing, she looked up at him as they walked, and saw him nodding—probably because he’d heard it all before, and not because he agreed with the environmental issues she was raising. From somewhere in the background she heard the sound of helicopter rotors, as one of the tours departed or returned.
    The two of them walked beneath an arbor of bougainvillea that led into the main botanical garden, filled with exotic tropical flowers from all over the world, splashes of color that looked as if the plants had been painted by the hand of a great master. Numerous quaint little foot bridges crossed over trickling manmade streams.
    “I know this is similar to what Kimo and his mother said at the town hall meeting,” she said, “and I appreciate you continuing to listen, because I told you when I left I was going to be with Kimo, so you know where some of this information is coming from.”
    “I’m always willing to listen to you,” he said, his voice filled with emotion. “Because I love you.”
    “I appreciate that very much, Grandfather. I love you, too.” She squeezed his hand for a long moment as they walked, then let go.
    They crossed an arched Japanese bridge, an antique structure that had been brought from the old country in parts, and rebuilt here. In the middle, the old man stopped to gaze out on a carp pond, one of his favorite places in the resort, a spot he sometimes visited when he wanted to calm himself. She wondered how many times he had gone here in the days since she left. Now he removed his sunglasses and buttoned them inside a shirt pocket, then leaned on the railing and gazed out on the water and the multi-hued carp swimming in it.
    Alicia had considered not telling him about Moanna, or the special abilities she and Kimo had, because he wasn’t likely to believe any of that, and—even worse—he might think she had lost her mind. But she had to tell him the truth, the full truth—and then ask for his help. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself.
    “A powerful deity lives in the depths of the ocean,” she said. “Her name is Moanna, and she wants to save the seas by reversing the damages caused by humans as much as possible. I know what you’re thinking, that this is a legend, because there are so many in Hawaii. But I