by Josh Karnes
Chapter 8
Off the coast of Isla Roca, Puerto Rico
The dive over El Pliegue, or ‘the crease’, had been spectacular. Eli was a pretty experienced diver, having gotten his PADI certification while he was in middle school. It seemed like a cool idea at the time, and literally none of the other kids were doing it. Growing up in Houston, he wasn’t lacking for opportunities to dive, but the conditions were pretty awful off the muddy Texas coast. Once he was old enough to drive and make his own way, he had taken a spur of the moment trip to Biloxi and hooked up with some locals, where he experienced clear water diving for the first time. He wasn’t going to make a career of it or anything, but he had done this enough to have some experience.
Mark and Joey always looked up to Eli and they also got their PADI certifications the previous year. They went diving a few times with their brother just out in the deep water out of Freeport where it was a little clearer away from the Mississippi mud. Since their parents were not exactly getting along, it was one of those things that they could do together and get away from the maelstrom of James and Melissa.
After they buttoned up all of the diving for the day, the tourists took up positions among the saloon benches and sun-deck tables on either of the two day boats for the long ride back to Vieques. Since you can’t talk while you are actually diving, the boats were abuzz with tourists jabbering on, recounting the incredible diving conditions of ‘the crease’. From what Eli could overhear, it sounded like most of these people on the tour had rarely or never been diving, and were more accustomed to snorkeling. It had been a huge experience for the bulk of the group.
As usual, Joey had pushed the limits of adventure on the dive, electing to frequently test the max-depth alarm on his dive computer. Since Mark and Eli couldn’t shout at him to come back to the fold, they were left chasing him down underwater just to keep an eye on him. They had promised their mother that they would not lose sight of him but this was a lot harder in practice than it had seemed when they made the promise. There is surprising tunnel vision through a diving mask, and Joey was a master at giving his overseers the slip. While it had begun as a frustrating effort to rein Joey in, eventually Joey’s sense of adventure and independence did cause Mark and Eli to explore a little deeper and closer to the edge than they would have on their own.
Experienced divers were not in abundance in this tour group, but they did seem to find each other by the return trip. Fortunately for Mark and Eli, the ones that found them were Ruby and Harper, a pair of cute girls who recently graduated from Southern Cross University in Lismore, Australia.
“Diving in Australia is really great. I mean, we have the Great Barrier Reef. It’s great if you want to look at fish. But we have nothing like ‘the crease,’” Ruby explained while Mark sat wide-eyed and Eli played cool.
“Ooh! Did you see that school of black-tip sharks?” said Harper.
“No,” explained Eli. “We were busy trying to keep tabs on our little brother Joey, who seemed determined to scare us to death following a tiger shark.”
“You saw a tiger shark? I heard they were not around here in Puerto Rico.”
“Yeah, it was really deep in ‘the crease’. We weren’t in much danger. I don’t think he was interested in us. We also saw a whole pod of dolphins down there,” Mark responded. “Before this, the scariest thing I had seen diving had been a barracuda.”
Harper offered, “Yeah, we were surprised just how many big fish there were down there. In Australia around the reefs we have lots of colorful little fish. We also saw a squid or an octopus. Not sure which.”
“I guess it could have been an octopus. Really there could be just about anything down there. That’s the deepest sinkhole in the world,” Eli said.
“So, where is this brother of yours anyway?” Ruby asked.
“Oh, I think he got on the other boat. We had our eye on him until we all had to surface and there were like thirty or forty people lining up to get back on the boats. We got separated in the crowd and I think he didn’t make this boat,” Mark was actually more than a little bit worried. He didn’t actually see Joey get on the other boat, he just assumed he was on there because he didn’t seem to be on this boat. Plus, where else was there for him to go? They were diving, then the time alarm went off telling them they had to return, they hit the surface and then started loading into the boats. There were no other boats there and no other place to go. He had to be on the other boat.
This worried him also because Joey’s bag was here, on the boat with he and Eli. It had Joey’s phone, wallet, shoes and shirt in it. So if he was on the other boat, he’d be stuck with no way to communicate and he’d have to deboard in just his swim trunks at the marina. Mark figured that if Joey had been on this boat with he and Eli, then he would have at least gotten his bag.
Mark tried to put Joey’s status out of his mind, since they’d find out when they got back to Vieques, and there was nothing he could do about it until then. He lost sight of Joey just for a minute, and he lost track of him. What are the odds? Maybe Eli saw him get on the other boat. Once Eli was through flirting with these Aussie babes, Mark would ask him.
But Mark didn’t get the chance, because Eli never did quit chatting with Ruby and Harper. Mark didn’t blame him. They were cute, smart, and they had an intoxicating accent. Surely if Eli hadn’t seen Joey get on the other boat, he’d not be so easily distracted by these girls.