Courting the Clearwaters

by Jill Penrod

Matt had never heard of a cenote, so when Lisa had told them they would spend part of their long weekend swimming in one, he hadn’t been impressed. Dana had rolled her eyes at him and assured him it would be beautiful, and now, as they walked down the metal steps to the underground pool, he realized just how right she’d been.

  The cave was huge, the water lit in shades of blue and green, the reddish stone bathed in light as well until it looked like a wonderland, something completely unearthly.

  “Wow,” Tom said behind him, and Matt turned to him and chuckled, thinking exactly the same thing.

  Apparently the Yucatan peninsula was filled with caves, enough that no rivers ran aboveground here. Curt had delighted in giving them a speech about the geology of the area, which Matt had enjoyed more than he expected. As a mountain climber, he knew a lot about stone formations above the ground, and now he realized stone belowground was just as grand and beautiful.

  The group followed Lisa to a narrow ledge around the water where they all dropped their towels and shorts, sliding into the warm water and swimming into the deep pool.

  “It’s like we’re swimming in a fairy land,” Dana said, slowly spinning in the water and looking above them. “I’d like to have one of these.”

  “Your own cenote?” Tom asked, laughing at her.

  “Yes,” she said. “My own cenote.”

  “The Mayans thought of these as sacred places,” Lisa said as she and Seth swam toward them. Curt and Olivia had gone the other direction, swimming into a shadow on the far side of the wide pool. A few other people swam around them, including a family with four little ones. Two of the families were natives of the area, and the rest were clearly tourists.

  “Can you imagine coming down here before they had lights?” Seth asked. “It would be super creepy. No wonder they thought these things were a little supernatural.”

  They swam out to the center of the pool, looking around as they did, and Matt dunked under, appreciating the fresh water. He’d actually gotten a little tired of salt water recently.

  “I love it here,” Dana said quietly. The pool echoed strangely, and shadows and light played around the stone walls and ceiling, mystical and beautiful. Matt had to grin at all the poetry the place brought to mind.

  Tom swam away from them, and Dana slowly swam in another direction, all of them fairly lost in their own thoughts as they explored.

  Matt had let the previous day fall away, but now that he swam here alone, he brought the humiliation out again and dwelled on it a bit, reliving his fear of climbing down a Mayan pyramid where once he’d been able to climb down a mountain. This time, he tried to see it in a different light. No, he hadn’t been comfortable on the stairs, but he’d gotten down. With no falls, and without hurting anyone else, he’d managed to face the fear and get to the ground. Surely if he could do it once like that, he could learn to do it again, maybe even enough to climb again.

  And it hit him, then, his desire to climb again. He said he wasn’t interested. He looked at the mountain tattoo on his arm and felt angry not because he was finished climbing but because he was still hoping to do it again. Yesterday he’d taken a tiny, painful, and rather humiliating step in that direction, and that was cause for celebration, not shame.

  Across the pool a mother started calling for her child, and Matt turned toward her. She spoke a language Matt didn’t know, maybe German, and her voice grew more frantic as she called and received no reply.

  “I saw him a few minutes ago,” Dana said, swimming closer. “Their little boy was at the edge, climbing on the rocks over there.”

  She pointed, and Matt shuddered at the wall of rock. His reaction startled him, especially in light of his positive thoughts from moments ago, and he found himself stroking back away from the wall.

  “Matt,” Dana said, gripping his arm. “You okay?”

  He shook his head tightly. “I hope he didn’t climb up there.”

  “You used to help your dad,” Tom said, then, appearing at Matt’s other side. “Ideas about where kids go when they hide from their parents?”

  “Ah, not really,” Matt said, wondering why Tom was asking him. This wasn’t a mountain rescue; this was a missing child.

  By now the mother had climbed out, her calls nearly hysterical. Seth and Lisa swam toward her, and they tried to ask her about her son, but they didn’t speak her language. Curt and Olivia followed, gesturing a few things, and the woman pointed toward the far wall, apparently trying to tell them they had last seen the boy there. Matt hadn’t paid much attention, but he thought he’d seen the boy, who was maybe eight or nine years old. He swam toward the wall after Tom and Dana.

  “That way,” Tom said, pointing to Dana. “I’ll look this way. Matt, you look in the water.”

  Tom climbed onto the ledge and disappeared onto a higher ledge, and Dana walked the other way, peering back into areas Matt couldn’t see from the water. Matt himself looked toward the pool floor, although in most spots it was so deep he couldn’t see the bottom. As he swam over the deep areas he felt sick, imagining the little boy down there, imagining all the horrible things that could happen to a child down here.

  Suddenly he swam toward the exit, needing to get out. They wouldn’t find the boy. Surely he’d drowned, and the parents would grieve, and there were no happy endings to that story. Families struggled and fell apart, and that was just part of life.

  “Matt?” Seth asked as Matt swam past him toward the exit, where Matt climbed out and walked toward the steps. Daylight, he thought. It would all be better if he could just see the daylight. Then he could breathe again.

  Matt stopped, feeling sicker, and Seth stood at his side.

  “Sit,” Seth said quietly, gripping Matt’s arm and helping him to the ground. “Matt, it’s okay. Breathe, okay?”

  “What if they don’t find him?” Matt asked, whispering the words.

  “Here,” Curt suddenly called, and he swam from a distant corner toward the center of the pool, a little boy in his arms. The mother squealed, and the little boy called to her in his language, and Matt took a deep breath. The boy was okay. Everything was okay. Sometimes God let things work out well, with no loss or death.

  Matt watched the reunion as Curt turned the child over to his mother. The poor child didn’t seem to realize the trouble he’d caused, and he pulled away from his mother’s smothering hugs and kisses. The father shook Curt’s hand, and the rest of the people in the pool quickly returned to their swimming. Tom and Dana jumped back into the water and swam toward Matt, who simply wanted to disappear into the depths himself, so ashamed of himself he couldn’t even speak.

  “Curt said he was hiding,” Tom said as he climbed out. He glanced into Matt’s face without hesitation. “You okay, man?”

  “I don’t know,” Matt said.

  “I’m so glad he’s okay,” Dana said. She looked at Seth and Matt and then shook her hair a bit. “It’s freezing out here. I’m getting back in. Matt?”

  He paused, unsure what to do now. “Ah, I don’t know.”

  “We haven’t been here long enough to get out,” Tom said. “Come on, Tucker. Let’s go dunk your aunt.”

  Matt watched the pair return to the water, and he turned to Seth, who smiled at him.

  “Go on.”

  “I almost ran away,” Matt said, feeling miserable.

  “Remember my friend Shawn, the one who runs from fire? It’s okay, Matt. Nobody blames him or thinks less of him. Tom and Dana don’t realize what happened here, and I understand. Now, go have fun.”

  Matt thought he was wrong, and both the others knew exactly what he’d been doing, but he also realized they weren’t holding it against him. They knew he had some issues, and they were okay with that. The thought was humbling and encouraging. His own mother wasn’t like that, deciding Dad’s new issues gave her the right to walk away. But Tom and Dana were willing to let Matt’s issues go, and the gesture almost m
ade him cry.

  ~~~~~~~