The Key to Paradise by Kay Dillane

laughter of Joe’s was muted. I could hear the gentle swell of water as it lapped against the fiberglass hulls.
    “Do you want to tell me where we’re going?”
    “No, I want to show you.” I had never seen this side of Landon before, excited and happy. It was like a switch had been flipped. Before was sullen silence and catty comments, then a guarded truce. He seemed like he was making an effort to put our past behind us too and I was relieved. We walked along the wooden boardwalk while a few crabs scuttled out of our way and back into their holes. “It’s down here at the end of the dock.”
    “And it requires bread crumbs?”
    “Yes.” It was clear I wasn’t going to get any more information out of him so I followed in silence enjoying the serene calm of the evening. As we got closer to where the dock ended in the blackness of the water I could see a faint greenish glow illuminating a fish cleaning station and a few pilings tilting like Verna after four margaritas. I peered at the light trying to figure out where it was coming from.
    “These used to be all over the docks but most of them have burnt out or shorted. This is the only one left.” Landon nudged me towards the edge of the walkway and I looked down in the water startled to see a single bulb glowing fiercely through the water almost five feet deep. All around it a group of fish had gathered drawn by the inexplicable presence of light.
    “They’re huge.” I said unable to close my mouth as I watched the sleek silver shapes glided in restless circles around the glow of the bulb. Some were long and thin, others shaped like footballs. I realized I knew absolutely nothing about fish if it wasn’t breaded or fried. “What are they?”
    “Those are tarpon.” He said pointing to the huge ones lurking on the periphery with frowning old man faces. They were shaped like missiles each easily over four feet long. “These are jacks.” A small school of the football shaped fish winged around the light moving with an eerie speed. “The ones with the smooshed looking faces are look-downs.” A few stragglers as narrow as a knife’s edge with long angled faces flashed sideways to look up at me.
    “They’re beautiful.” The fish cut easily through the water moving with a liquid grace as they huddled close to us hoping for a handout. It was like getting a glance into a hidden world you never knew existed right under your feet. Sure, objectively I knew there were fish in the ocean. I spent the past few years in Boston where fishing was a crucial part of life for so many people. But to see them like this through the crystal clear water was something else entirely. I could have sat for hours and watched them turn in lazy circles around the green glow of the light.
    “Look,” Landon said pointing. “Here comes some parrotfish.” A small group of fish as brightly colored as any bird cut through their faster moving cousins and took their place beneath us. “Give them some crumbs.”
    I dribbled a few in the water unprepared for the pandemonium that followed. All the easy grace was shattered in a feeding frenzy. The jacks darted, the parrotfish grabbed and the tarpon closed ranks circling closer to the bread crumbs. I jumped back laughing when a particularly acrobatic jack splashed me as he desperately chased a piece of shrimp.
    “They act like they haven’t been fed in days.”
    “Don’t believe their lies.” Landon said tossing a few of the bigger pieces out to the hulking tarpon. “They hang out here for the offal when the fisherman clean their catches. They’re dock puppies. They eat better than any fish in the open ocean.”
    “I had no idea they were down here.”
    “Wait until you see a reef. The Keys are more than these little spits of islands. Most of the real Keys is under the water.”
    “It’s so different from what I’m used to: being able to look down in the water and see the bottom, to see all the life. When I would go to the beach