Who Put The Nam In Tsunami
By: Veronica Flores Period 1
Long ago there was a sixteen-year old boy who lived in the quiet town of Stone, his name was Nam. He had wind-swept blond hair at first look, but if you looked again it almost looked blue and faint stubble along his chin. Nam had a close to inhuman gift of long-distance swimming, he could swim miles and miles without stopping and everybody adored him. Unfortunately, Nam let this go to his head and always gloated about how he was so amazing at swimming and that he could beat Poseidon, God of Sea, anytime. Nam would soon regret the fact that he ever said those words.
On an unusually warm day, Nam walked into Stone to get food for his mom and himself. He had never met his dad, so he had become the man of the house. Nam then started to brag about how he could beat Poseidon again to his adoring fans when Poseidon stepped out of the shadows, in which he had been lurking in before. When he stepped out Nam knew instantly that the man in front of him was Poseidon. The blond, but almost blue windswept hair, and the well-kept beard was a dead giveaway. “Who is this Nam I have heard about?” Poseidon looked around, but he only saw a scrawny boy. “This is the man who dare challenge me!” Poseidon laughed. “Please step forward.”
“I am Nam,” he declared, “and I still challenge you. I can swim miles without tiring, I’m not afraid of you, so I do challenge you. Do you accept?” Nam extended his hand waiting for Poseidon to shake it. Poseidon silently took Nam’s hand and shook with a smug smile on his face.
The next day, Nam took his place on the beach and waited until Poseidon said go. Nam felt strangeness in his heart. Could it be fear? No, he never feared anything or anyone, and then as if in slow motion he heard, “Go!” Poseidon and Nam then both, as graceful as dolphins, jumped into the warm, glistening, luxurious water. Nam was so familiar with swimming that it felt like second nature, like Spanish is to English. Poseidon knew every current, wave, and sea creature that had ever lived in his ocean. He was so sure that he had the advantage in this challenge that he hadn’t realized that Nam had gotten in front of him. This made Poseidon start to swim faster and get angrier.
After fifteen miles Nam began to tire, it felt like he had been swimming for hours on end. Even with exhaustion in his arms Nam never slowed down, if anything he got faster with winning just ahead of him. But Nam began to worry that Poseidon would beat him, so he started to splash Poseidon with every kick. Poseidon realized this quickly and was pushed over the edge. He threw a wave, so big that it went all the way back to the city of Stone, at Nam and it killed him easily.
Poseidon only then took a good look at Nam. He became frozen realizing what he had done, he had just killed Nam, his own son. Not able to look at Nam anymore he sent Nam back to Stone on top of a big wave back to Stone that took out many people in Stone. Only the people lucky enough to survive saw Poseidon begin to weep and go back to Olympus. Now every time Poseidon feels overcome with grief, he sends a big wave, a Tsunami, back to the town of Stone, and every time people die just like Nam did in the Tsunami.