Salt

When Our Boat Hit the Manatee

23 W H E N O U R B O a t H I t t H E M a N a t E E it was not a mediocre surprise to any of us. It was huge. and I wonder what the manatee thought of our scraping his back or his whatever with the bow of our boat, our banged-up rented boat with its trolling motor churning waves in the still bay. The manatee, or what I thought was a manatee, heaved us from the quiet water, then disappeared back to his nap on the bottom of the bay. It’s not as if you need a microscope to find a manatee, not the way you need a microscope to find a certain-shaped cell or to see something you cannot see with unassisted eyes. They’re not microscopic. They’re huge. so why we didn’t see the manatee asleep in the water escapes me, even today. But what surprises me more is that we never saw the manatee, even when he raised the bow of our silver boat straight out of its brackish water with a swirl and a spray in no way mediocre. That was a show. What never showed was the manatee himself, just the sign of him disturbed on his lazy morning. Then silence. Everything silent but my screaming and cursing, my reaction at finding myself far from shore in a rented boat with someone so happy with surprises. ...