by Kim Hornsby
During World War II, the military had used south Maui beaches to practice invasion tactics with landing crafts. Tina knew a lot about the history of Maui. “It’s thought that a barge got tossed by the waves and dropped a perfectly good tank into the ocean. After which the landing craft slid off, providing Maui with two small wrecks to dive,” Tina explained.
The sun climbed slowly into the sky, and everyone was ready to dive by the time Tina slowed the boat and took lineup measurements from the land. How she knew exactly where to anchor was baffling to Jamey. Nothing of the wreck was visible until the boat swung directly above to reveal a faint darkness below them.
“On your way between the two sights, look for sea biscuits and cone shells, but remember not to touch the pointy ends of the shells. They’re poisonous,” Tina said, ever the cautious dive instructor. Jamey was used to briefings and carrying out orders. “Will do.”
“It’s a cool site. Just don’t try to go inside the tank. It’s too tight.” She shook her finger at the customers. “If I hear you entered the tank, I’ll leave you here to swim to shore.”
Everyone laughed, but Jamey knew Tina well enough to believe her. When he’d taken his specialty diving courses, she’d been a stickler for details and very strict, especially for someone who was making love with him several times a night. In those days he’d called her ‘hard-ass’ for more than one reason.
Before Jamey jumped off the boat, Tina touched his arm. “Make sure everyone follows me to the second site when I move the boat.”
“Roger that,” he’d mumbled through the regulator. Did she know he’d follow her just about anywhere?
***
Tina sipped a Coke while the customers explored the wreck below and thought about last night. Embarrassment didn’t begin to explain Tina’s residual feelings at almost giving in to Noble. Why had she pretended she was free to kiss him? Did she need reassurance of her ability to attract a man? Finding out that Jamey had a pregnant wife when she’d shared his bed had spurred feelings in her that obviously couldn’t be buried. But she didn’t think she was using Noble to feel wanted. She certainly didn’t see Noble as a replacement for Hank, or even as a potential boyfriend. Flirting with him was wrong, or encouraging him or whatever it was called when a woman kissed a man in her bed and then told him to leave. Giving in to her need to be touched had been a moment of weakness.
Tina stared at the divers’ bubbles that surrounded the boat. She did not need more heartache in her life. Aside from the obvious, Noble had as many problems as she did, and it was unfair of her to take advantage of him this way. They needed to talk. Shame over leading Noble on was a feeling she didn’t want to host for long. She counted the groupings of bubbles on the ocean’s surface. There were six distinctive clusters for six divers. Good. She honked the horn and, put the boat in gear, pointing the bow towards the landing craft site. The year before, this same group of wealthy software designers dived the island of Kahoolawe with Hank, when the government opened the forbidden island for one weekend to dive groups. They’d partied for days with Hank after that, and Tina had teased that one of the women had the hots for him. This year she’d been unable to get away from work and was the only one in the group who hadn’t come.
After circling the landing craft, Tina lowered the anchor to a sandy patch near the site. The trade winds had come up, and the boat swung around to position itself over the divers. Satisfied with her efforts, she sat on the bow to watch the bubbles. So far, so good. No grotesque hallucinations surfaced in front of her.
Thirty minutes later, when the divers broke through the surface, she grabbed their gear, weight belts first.
“Thanks Jamey for finding all that cool stuff to look at,” someone said.
“Sounds like Jamey’s wasting his time in the army,” Tina said, as she lifted the gear into the boat. Jamey’s grin made her look away quickly, her face hot. How could he still have this effect on her?
Between dives, Jamey swam off the boat with the customers, cracking jokes. He was a sociable guy.
When he splashed her and said, “Get in the water!” she thought about what Mr. Takeshimi had told her recently. “The day you decide to do, it is your lucky day.”
Stepping up onto the bow, she dove into the turquoise ocean. She laughed when she popped up to the surface. “Feels good!” Her heart raced, but the feeling was glorious as she swam around the boat.
Tina had always been a swimmer; ever since her brother died in the family pool. Tina was driven to swim even if neither parent went near water after that. They wouldn’t even attend her swim meets in college.
Lingering near the swim step, she tread water as she observed the others in the ocean. When Jamey dove under the boat and came up in front of her, she had a weird flash of recognition. His smile sparked a feeling in her that wasn’t residual attraction from years ago but something new, something born recently, maybe even as early as yesterday.
The feeling presented itself again after the charter, when they unloaded tanks in the back alley. Jamey turned to her, his face was very close, illuminated by the midday sunshine. They’d been here before. Was it déjà vu? She and Jamey had been face to face recently, but she’d been afraid of him. Very frightened. Then she remembered that he’d been a shark. They’d been diving in one of her dreams, and he’d turned into Hank, then transformed into a dangerous shark. She’d dreamed about him.
In her life, both Jamey and Hank had left her. Thoughts of abandonment forced panic to threaten. She wasn’t sure what the strange shark dream meant, and taking a few deep calming breaths, at her desk, she made a mental note to talk to Doc Chan about this.
***
The sun dipped behind the island of Lanai as Tina pulled into her driveway and drove to her parking spot. It had been an emotionally charged day. They all seemed to be humdingers these days. She grabbed her backpack and headed up the stairs with Obi. It was Noble’s day off and the truck sat in its parking spot. All day she’d been thinking about what to say to Noble, how to come to an agreement about no intimacy. Everything she thought to say sounded rude and trite.
She pulled the screen door open. The patio door was always unlocked at her house, the screen only closed to keep out bugs. Locking the house seemed silly in her neighborhood. Anything of value that she owned was at the dive shop or locked away in containers hidden in her bedroom closet. And her grandmother’s paintings were valuable only to her for sentimental reasons. They were worth a thousand, if that, Hank had told her. He knew art.
Noble sat on the couch, a throw pillow on his lap, watching TV. “Hi, you.” She threw her backpack on the floor, slipped out of her flip flops and sat beside him, not touching.
Noble hit the ‘off’ button and made a show of looking at the distance between them. “Is this weird now?” He pulled her over, causing her to fall against his shoulder.
“We can get past it.” She was almost on his lap, their bodies pressed up against each other. His hand rested on her knee, something new. Tina leaned away slightly from the man who’d intimately kissed her only hours before.
“Do we want to?” he asked. He must’ve known what was coming next.
“We need to talk about all that,” she said. The unspoken words hovered between them like bees ready to sting, and she shifted to put distance between them. Would Noble be relieved or disappointed? “I can’t offer you anything, Noble,” she said.
Noble raised his hand to silence her. “I know what we are to each other.” He took her hand again and lifted it to kiss her knuckles. “And we don’t need to put a name on it. I know what it was last night and you do, too.”
She did. They were going to be fine. Noble understood. Tina exhaled the breath she’d been holding. “You are my rock, Noble. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for understanding.”
“And that’s why I want to say something,” he continued.
She tilted her head, totally unprepared for what came next.
“I want to suggest we
have a baby together.” He looked serious.
Tina’s mouth fell open.
He continued. “I know you want a baby and I think we would make an amazing child.” His smile couldn’t be contained.
When Tina closed her mouth, then opened it to speak, he touched her lips with his finger.
“Just think about it, Ti. You want a baby. I’m offering.”
Tina’s protestations lingered at the edge of her tongue as she pictured a baby from her and Noble, already feeling the warmth and weight in her arms, a thought that both terrified and excited her.
Chapter 9
Dream jumping was both a curse and a gift, no doubt about it. Ever since he was ten, Jamey had been trying to deny his ability. He’d hidden what he knew for years. As a teen, it was inconvenient and annoying to know what other people thought about him. When he figured out how to use the talent to his teenage advantage, he decided to embrace it.
At first his skills helped him sneak out of the house, and then they helped boost his dating prospects. When plans backfired and revealed more than he wanted to know, Jamey saw the ugly side of his intuition.
In his early twenties he tried to lead a normal life, and dream jumping became like a bonus skill that he was too scared to use. Various jobs never worked out when mind reading got in the way. Knowing the thoughts of his bosses and coworkers was too much for an inexperienced young man to handle. He had yet to learn to block other people’s emotions.
Jamey had some rough years, and then was accepted into the police academy at the age of twenty-six, same as his Uncle Don, who was the only other person he knew with abilities like his. Donald Dunn was a detective with the Seattle Police Force. He secretly used his extra sense for the greater good, and he’d been trying for years to convince Jamey it was the right thing to do.
Keeping his cards close to his chest in the police academy, Jamey didn’t reveal his secret, agreeing with Uncle Don that it was best for everyone. When Jamey became a decorated policeman, guilt robbed him of any joy. He didn’t deserve the commendation, it was his ability. Standing in front of a group of deserving police officers, he felt like an imposter. Still, he kept the secret. Jamey was an expert at keeping secrets.
Years later, Don died from a heart attack while dream jumping with a serial killer and Jamey quit the police force. Carrie divorced him and he went through a dark period of drinking heavily. Don was the only other jumper he’d known and the gift had killed him. Eventually Pops convinced Jamey that he was dishonoring his uncle by falling apart. Shortly after that speech, Jamey took a new approach to dream jumping.
It was during this transition that the armed forces found James Dunn. He never knew how they discovered him. The day they found him coming out of Pops’ house, they told him they wanted to talk to him privately. Jamey looked around the deserted yard. “This is good enough.” After showing him their credentials, they said they wanted to test his ability. They had others in a special force who had sixth senses. Jamey was desperate to know someone else who could dream jump and agreed to the testing. It was too good to be true.
After months of tests and enough interviews to make his head spin, Sixth Force was desperate to have James Dunn. They offered him a position with the team in Afghanistan and made him swear an oath to keep his dream jumping ability a secret. Later, he’d learn that an undisclosed member of the force had ferreted him out through his ability. And, he was told that he’d never meet the other members of Sixth Force. Not the ones with abilities, anyhow.
***
Tina’s boat hummed along, riding the sunny-day swells as they motored across the channel between Maui and Lanai, the pineapple island. Today’s destination was the Cathedral Caverns, a dive site Jamey knew well from Tina’s diving class years ago.
Unable to read her mood, Jamey was miffed that his ability eluded him. He recalled that she’d always been a tough read but never this difficult. How was he going to keep a watch on her if he couldn’t tune in?
With her hat pulled over her forehead and her Maui Jim sunglasses hiding her eyes, Tina stood like a statue, her hands on the wheel. She said nothing on the thirty-minute crossing to the house sized boulder known as Sweetheart Rock.
“Have you done this dive before?” a customer asked Jamey when they slowed to approach the site. He recalled the day he and Tina tried to make love in the underwater cavern, only to be amused by the difficulty of having sex underwater.
“Yes, it’s a beauty.” Catching Tina’s suppressed smile, he knew she remembered.
“Jamey, can you get the anchor for me?” Tina eased back on the throttle and guided the boat to the exact place on the water where an anchor could be safely dropped in the sand.
Letting out the line, he knew Tina was staring at him from under her hat, watching him for reasons beyond the anchor’s placement. He smiled to himself. What usually eluded him with her was now crystal clear, if only for a brief moment. Tina still had some leftover feelings for him. The joy from that knowledge was only slightly overshadowed by the immediate task of anchoring. Feeling the pronged edge catch in the sand, he was satisfied. “All done, Captain.
Perfect parking job, as always,” he said.
Tina smiled, her veil of sadness temporarily lifted. “Thank you, James.”
A newlywed couple stood by Tina. “Are you diving with us?” the husband asked.
“Not today, but Dave’ll take good care of you,” she said. “I’m trying to dry out for a few days.” Everyone chuckled. “Use the flashlights inside the cavern. You’ll be amazed at the colors.” She pulled out five underwater flashlights and attached them to the BCD jackets. They talked about not touching the coral, or the sea life, and then everyone got into gear.
Once again, Jamey was the last to jump off the boat. Descending slowly, he kept an eye on the others heading down the anchor line. The visibility was not ideal—only thirty feet of clarity. Dave would want to keep them all close because of this fact. If someone drifted more than fifty feet away, they would be impossible to see.
Appropriately named, the main cathedral resembled the inside of a small church, with shafts of sunlight piercing through multiple ceiling holes like stained-glass windows. Front and back door openings provided perfect access to the lava-rock structure, making the dive safer than a cave with limited escape routes and total darkness. This cavern was a rare gift to Hawaiian divers, formed long ago when gases were trapped inside cooling lava.
Jamey drifted through the arched opening at the end of the line of divers who’d already stirred up the silt. The sunlight coming through the cathedral windows bounced off the particles in the water to make the murk more exciting for him. Jamey recalled a dive with Tina in this particular grotto, trying to get her to remove her bathing suit top. She’d kicked him away, and eventually they’d had to surface from laughing. They’d descended again and tried to do the nasty deed but found it was pretty much impossible, if not uncomfortable.
When he got through the cavern door into the sunshine, Dave counted bodies. Jamey did the same. Four. Where was the fifth?
Dave signaled them to stay and hurried back inside the cavern. When Dave came out alone, he signaled for Jamey to ascend, take a look. Jamey started up slowly, turning as he went. When a diver goes missing the meeting point is always on the surface, where it’s much easier to locate someone in the clarity of air.
Breaking the surface, Jamey noticed Tina on the swim step, hands on hips. “What’s going on?”
“Seen anyone up here? We only have four.”
“What? No.”
Jamey put his regulator back in his mouth and descended slowly, turning in a circle all the way down, checking. When he reached the group, he shook his head at Dave and then noticed the fifth had shown up. Dave signaled all was okay and they took off to explore the reef.
But ten minutes later, when they finished the dive and surfaced, he sensed Tina’s panic. One look from her told him that she’d been frantically waiting. Jamey put his hand on her s
houlder and whispered. “Didn’t you assume we found him?”
“Well, I hoped.” Her words came out too fast, too clipped to involve any confidence, and when she shot Dave a look of anger, it didn’t go unnoticed by Jamey. Or Dave. The worry of a missing diver had taken its toll on Tina, and now she was barely able to answer questions about Lanai with the customers. Her hands were shaking. Had she ever lost a diver? Hadn’t her twin brother drowned? Shit! He should have surfaced to tell her they found the diver. “Sorry I didn’t come up to fill you in,” he said.
For the second dive of the day, the boat motored around the coast of Lanai to a turtle reef in front of a tourist attraction called Club Lanai. Fingers of coral-encrusted lava rock fanned out from the island, hiding green sea turtles under their rocky ledges. The customers had been instructed to stay away from the giant turtles. They were an endangered species, and the days of grabbing them to ride were long gone. Even touching them was illegal.
When Jamey ascended early from the second dive, he found Tina sitting cross-legged on the swim step. “Anything wrong?” Tina’s face was filled with tension.
“No.” He pulled off his mask and put his weight belt on the swim step beside her. “I just wanted to come up early.” Did she actually flinch, or did he just feel her tension?
She stood to hoist his tank into the boat and he climbed the ladder. “Why?” Tina didn’t meet his eyes.
“I wanted to ask you something.”
She froze. “Please don’t.”
“Don’t worry. I just wanted to ask if you’d do my cavern certification. It’s the only specialty course I have left, and I’d like to make this vacation count for something besides drinking Corona.” Jamey reached around to pull off his wetsuit, but before he could, Tina grabbed the shoulder part and yanked one side off his shoulder.
“Thanks.”
“You did ice diving?” She took a towel from the pile and threw it at him.