About a year ago I lent $20.00 to a good Palauan friend of mine by the name of Billy-Joe. It's common practice here to shorten every body's name down. Some of the characters that I hang out with have names such as. "Winkler" who we call "Wink" and "Florenceco'" which turns into "Show", and "Abraham" who of course is "Abra", and "Kayoshsi" is shorten to "Kayos", and Nixon is Nix’s, and "Musao" which stays "Masao", and "Billy-Joe" will respond to just plan" Joe"
Joe is a short five foot two, and is about 25 years old, and has worked for Fish 'n Fins for two years but about six months ago we had to let him go. Sometimes he would get a little drunk pay day night and just not show up for work the next morning, which in itself is kind of the way things are done around here. But business was a little slow so we gave him some "Time out. Joe got a job working as a boat driver for another dive company and would still come around just for something to do. So last Saturday he comes driving up to our gas pumps to fill the tanks in his boat. The total bill can to exactly $20.00 so I take this opportunity to inquire. "Say Joe. My little brown friend, does the number twenty have all special meaning to you?" He looks up at me, and I can tell he's trying to think real hard by the blank expression on his face. Then in a sudden flash of enlightenment he starts this big grin from ear to ear and says. "Oh yeah, I owe you twenty bucks!"
Me: "Well?'
Joe: "Well what?"
Me: "Well, when am I going to get it?"
Joe: "Get what?
Me: "My twenty buck!"
Joe: "Ah….soon”
Me: "Like how soon? Like, sometime in my life time'?"
Joe stars laughing. "One never knows, does one'?"
I have already written off the $20.00, but it's always fun to give Joe a hard time about it. Besides now he owes me, and to save "Face" he has to do "favors" for me. Consequently anytime I need something done 1 can always get Joe to do it for me. But the best part of all this is because he owes me $20.00 he can't ask me for any more money. Hence I guess it’s a small price to pay. .
Business has been very good so far this year and we've had a lot of big name special people here the last few months. First we had a Production team nom Steven Spielberg. Evidently he's going to open a chain of restaurants called "Dive" So he had one on his production teams called "Walk on water" which consisted of about twenty five guys, come over here and film all sorts of underwater stuff. I guess when you walk into the restaurant it's going to look like a Submarine with portholes and a front viewing screen, so it will appear that you’re under water. Neat! They were here for a little over a month. At the same time we had Howard Hall here who was doing a special IMAX film about the "Living Sea." IMAX is that movie theater that has this huge wrap around screen. They did a whole thing with Francis and the kids. So Francis is a big movie star now and the grand opening will be in France some time in August. Howard said that he would put at the end of the movie in the credits a "Special thanks" to Lenny so keep you eyes open and let me know. Right after they left, along comes David Doubilet, who is probably the best underwater photographer in the world. He does ALL the underwater photos for National Geographic Magazine. He had been to Palau in 1982 to do a special on the "Strange world of Palau's salt lakes" will Bill Hamner who was here also working with Howard Hall for the IMAX thing. Bill gave me an autographed copy of the National Geographic Magazine (Vol. 161) No.2 February 1982) that they did years ago, plus copies of all the research papers. When David arrived we were standing by the dive shop and he told me he was here to get pictures of only two things, Manta Rays and a small tropical fish called a Mandarin Goby. He had just arrived from Yap and had gotten some good shots of Manta Rays but wasn't able to find any Mandarin Gobi’s. He say that he's been diving and taking pictures for over thirty years and had never seen a Mandarin goby and that was the one fish that he really wanted to see and was willing to go to any depth and spend as much time as necessary just to get one shot of one. I started laughing and he says "What’s so funny?” I pointed down at the rocks at the side of the dock and said. "There's one!" He almost fell off thee pier, "They're all over here, they come out just about sunset. In fact I have one in my aquarium in the hotel” I told him that we collect them with 1ittle spear guns with a needle and a rubber ban. You shoot them in the tail! He's corning buck to Palau in the next few months wants to do a special on just the Mandarin Goby and wants me to go with him and help do the shoot. He said he wants to get a special split (above and below the water) picture of me with the spear gun and the goby. So maybe I get my picture in National Geographic!
But, that's not why this is a "Special Lenny News Letter." It's special because Sunday, Francis and I were sitting at the shop when a boat comes racing up to the dock with the boat diver yelling to call 911l because they had a injured person on the boat. Francis called 911 and 1 got into my Jeep and backed it up to the dock, and yelled at Francis that we could put the guy in the jeep and get him to hospital. I jumped out and ran to the boat, Francis was all ready there and looked up and said "No need it’s too late!" I looked down. It was Joe!
Earlier that morning he had been drinking und borrowed someone’s Jet Ski and went riding around the rock islands. It appears that he somehow lost control and ran straight into one on the islands. He had a large gash in the side of his head, and I figured he hit a rock and flew off and struck his head and was either dead on impact or unconscious and drowned. The boat driver said that they saw the Jet Ski floating all by it self and when they went to check it out they found Joe's body floating face down in the water.
Two days later Nixon, who is Joe’s brother, invited me to the funeral. All the dive guides from all the other dive shops attended as well as all of his family relatives. They put me in a chair up front and Winkler sat next to me and explained all the customs. I was the only "White" man there and I felt much honored to be invited. It is custom at a funeral for all the moaners to stay there for a few days and the family would provide food so that you will stay longer. We stayed until about 1:00 am before we left. We were all seated outside and Joe's body was inside the house. They would invite you in to view the body and pay your last respects in small groups. Those of us from Fish 'n Fins were invited in first. You would, on course, remove our shoes before going into anyone’s house and they had Joe’s body on the floor lying on a bed of flowers with a cloth around his head to cover the wound. Winkler told me that you were suppose to get down on your knees and work you way around the body and that Joe's "Spirit" or "Ghost" would be there and you could ask him for a specia11avor. Looking at Joe 1 started to cry, and then got really mad at him. I don’t believe in "spirits" or "Ghost" and he just laid there like he was only sleeping. I wanted to grab him and shake him and wake he up just to tell him "Joe, you idiot, How could you be so stupid arid go and do something so dumb." Later they sent around a collection for donations for the family to help pay some of the expenses. I looked into my wallet and took out a twenty dollar bill and dropped it in, and said to Joe "You can keep the other twenty!"
The next day the dive guides from the other dive shops all came down to Fish 'n Fins and we went out in the boats to the spot where Joe died and dropped flowers on the water. Joe was a good friend to all of us and will be missed, especially by me.
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