Blue Autumn Cruise

by Lisa Williams Kline

  “Group nine; please come to the boarding area. Group nine, to the boarding area.”

  “That’s us!” Daddy said. He put his arm around Lynn and waved us toward the exit to the tender. We filed off the ship and into the bright sunshine, and then climbed onto the small passenger boat bobbing beside the ship. The boat had rows of benches, and we filled it up. Then the boat’s motor started up. As we puttered across the bay, the wind blew in our hair and the waves lapped against the sides of the boat. The sun bore down on us, and the water beneath us was so clear we could see the white sand on the bottom below.

  “A short walk to George Town and shopping, and that way is Seven Mile Beach,” said the tender captain as we tied up at a dock.

  We headed for the beach and saw a long, beautiful stretch of white sand lined with small, colorful hotels and buildings, lounge chairs in lines, and palm and coconut trees swaying in the breeze. Hibiscus plants, adorned with big red-and-yellow blossoms, dotted the landscape. Grouped on the sand were sailboats, kayaks, Jet Skis, and other aquatic equipment.

  “Wow!” Lauren said. “It’s beautiful here!”

  “And see out there,” said Uncle Ted, pointing toward the water at dark shadows beneath the surface a few dozen yards from the beach. “That’s a coral reef where you can snorkel and see all kinds of fish. I used to own a saltwater tank when I was young, and I used to have all these beautiful brightly colored fish.”

  “I didn’t know that,” said Aunt Carol. “When did you have that?”

  “Before I knew you, my dear,” said Uncle Ted. “When I had my swinging bachelor pad.”

  Aunt Carol and Lynn laughed at that. “Oh, I can just imagine,” said Aunt Carol.

  “I had a trigger fish and a queen angel, a royal gramma fish, a yellow tang, and a blue tang. And a tomato clown fish like Nemo. I loved that tank,” said Uncle Ted. “I named all my fish.”

  “Aha!” said Aunt Carol, laughing. “So instead of inviting women over to see your etchings, you invited them over to see Nemo and his friends.”

  “Yes, all the myriad of women I dated,” said Uncle Ted, chuckling.

  We walked down the beach toward the area where Daddy had read the snorkeling would be good.

  “I can’t wait to snorkel!” said Luke. “I wish we could scuba.”

  “I wish I had an underwater camera,” said Lauren.

  “I don’t have to snorkel,” I said.

  “Oh, honey, of course you do,” Daddy said, putting his arm around me. “You don’t want to miss out on an adventure like that. Imagine coming to Grand Cayman and not going snorkeling!”

  I knew he’d be that way. I decided not to say anything else. Part of me did want to try it. Later, when I talked to Guy about our day on Grand Cayman, I wanted to be able to tell him that I’d snorkeled. Another part of me was scared, but I had told myself that I wasn’t going to let my fears get the best of me on this trip. I wanted to be brave like Diana!

  It was easy to find a place that rented snorkel equipment. A young man from Grand Cayman who worked there pointed out the sizes of the flippers and masks.

  “For small feet or small faces, you should choose these over here,” he said, with a slight British accent, as he held up smaller flippers and masks. Trying on the various flipper sizes was so funny; Lauren, Luke, and I walked around taking big awkward steps, like ducks. Diana even laughed. All of us finally found a good fit.

  “I’ll stay with the stuff while the rest of you snorkel,” said Aunt Carol. And so she set the beach bags on lounge chairs while the rest of us carried our snorkel equipment down to the water.

  “Everybody make sure they have a snorkeling buddy,” Daddy said.

  Diana and Lauren both wanted to be buddies with me, but I wanted to make sure I was snorkeling near Daddy and Lynn. I put on the flippers and followed Daddy and Lynn through the gentle breakers out into the water about waist deep. The water was refreshing but not too cold—just perfect—and the clear waves rolling into the beach were small. The sun was so bright, sparkling off the surface of the water. It was almost like a dream.

  “See how calm the water is,” Daddy said. “Great visibility underwater.”

  “Girls, you’re supposed to spit in your mask and rub the spit around the inside surface in order to keep your mask from fogging up,” Lynn said.

  “Eww!” Lauren said.

  “I know, it’s kind of gross, but it’s what you’re supposed to do.”

  “And then tighten the mask strap after you put it on so that it doesn’t leak.” She showed us how to do that.

  Finally I got the mask on, then pushed off, kicking with my flippers and looking at the sandy ocean floor below me. I kicked into deeper water and headed toward the darkness of the coral reef ahead. I could hear my own loud breathing through the snorkel. The deeper water felt colder, and I had a little chill, but I could see Daddy and Lynn out of the corner of my eye, and I could hear the bubbles coming from their snorkels, so I kept kicking.

  Soon I was floating on top of the water with the green edge of the coral reef below me. I watched the fronds of the water plants sway in the waves, and gradually I could see dozens of small, colorful fish darting in and out of the coral. They were such bright colors! One of them was like a big yellow coin, round and flat, with a tail fin. Another was pinkish with gigantic eyes. One was shaped like a pen, and it was half purple and half yellow—amazing! Another looked like Nemo from Finding Nemo —orange with round flippers and white stripes across its eyes. I floated on top of the water, listening to myself breathe and watching Daddy and Lynn as they dove down and pointed out the fish. The underwater sounds were so cool.

  Just then I saw a long silver fish swimming along the top not too far from me. Was that a barracuda? My heart started pounding, and I heard the bubbles racing out of my snorkel. I struggled to straighten up in the water, surfacing and grabbing for Daddy’s arm.

  “What, Steph?” Daddy surfaced, pulling his mask from his face, out of breath. “What’s the matter?”

  I pointed at the long thin fish.

  “That’s not a barracuda,” he said. “Just a needlefish. It’s okay. Keep snorkeling.”

  I took a deep breath. It sure looked like a barracuda. But I put my mask back on and looked down at the coral. I took another breath, trying to calm myself. Schools of white fish with black-and-yellow stripes wove and darted through the small crevices of the coral. A majestic blue fish with some yellow markings, shaped like a dinner plate, floated from behind a plant whose branches looked like long dark fingers. A delicately patterned sea fan moved ever so slightly in the current.

  Diana swam over to me waving and pointing down. I looked down on the sandy bottom and saw a big reddish starfish. I held my thumbs up to show her I’d seen it.

  It was truly a whole different world. I kept getting little chills down my spine.

  Eventually Lauren, Diana, and I swam back to shore, then ran, dripping and out of breath, to rest on the lounge chairs where Aunt Carol and Lynn were sitting.

  “That was so cool,” Diana said. “You know what I wish I could do? I wish I could ride on the beach here.”

  “I think they do have a stable somewhere on the island,” Lynn said. “But we only have one day here, so we don’t have time to ride on this trip.” She adjusted her sunglasses and turned a page in the guidebook. “The Cayman Islands are home to several endangered species of animals,” she said.

  “Like what?” said Diana eagerly.

  “There are the green sea turtles. Do you girls want to go to the turtle farm?” Lynn asked, turning the pages. “It says here that over thirty thousand turtles from the farm have been released into the wild. But it says that sixty percent of the turtles on the farm are for consumption.”

  “Consumption?” said Diana with a gasp. “Do you mean to eat?”

  “Yes, I think that’s what it means,” Lynn said. “The other forty percent of the turtles are chosen for breeding and release. There’s a big day in October—
they must have just had it a few weeks ago—when they have a big release party and release hundreds of turtles into the wild each year.”

  “I can’t believe it! That the turtle farm raises the turtles to be eaten. That’s horrible. I don’t want to go there!”

  I wondered how the turtle-farm operators chose which turtles were to be bred and which were to be eaten. I agreed with Diana, it did sound horrible.

  “I think they had turtle soup on one of the menus in George Town,” said Aunt Carol.

  “Oh no! That’s horrendous!” Diana said. “I’m going to boycott that restaurant. How can they do that? In fact, I want to become a vegetarian.”

  “Being a vegetarian isn’t easy,” said Aunt Carol. “You have to learn a lot about nutrition. And it may not be a good idea to become one before you’re an adult, while you still have growing to do.”

  I supposed Aunt Carol was right. It made me think of Guy and how careful he had to be with what he ate as a diabetic.

  “The guidebook says that keeping turtles on ships was one way historically that sailors were able to have fresh meat when they were at sea for a long time,” Lynn said. “And it also says that the people of the Cayman Islands have been eating turtles for five hundred years, and it’s often hard to change the way people think about cultural customs like that.”

  “What other animals are endangered?” Diana asked.

  “Let’s see,” said Lynn. “There is a certain kind of parrot called a Cayman Brac parrot that’s endangered. Cayman Brac is the only place in the world it’s found. There were about five hundred of them in the world before the last hurricane hit the Caymans, and now the numbers are at about three hundred, the book says.”

  “What does it look like?”

  “It’s got a green body and brilliant blue wing feathers. It has red cheeks and black ears, apparently. There is a parrot preserve on Cayman Brac. And there is a type of iguana called a blue iguana, and the Cayman Islands are the only place where it’s found. It says it’s one of the rarest breed of iguanas in the world. The blue iguana can grow to over five feet long. This guidebook calls them magnificent creatures. There is a research and breeding facility for the blue iguana here on Grand Cayman. They saved it from extinction. I remember feeding an iguana once when I was on Saint Thomas many years ago,” Lynn said.

  “What did it eat?”

  “Hibiscus flowers. It seemed to love them. And it chewed very slowly. The flower would very gradually get pulled into its mouth. They seem like very gentle lizards. I came to think of this one that liked to sit on a rock beside our hotel patio as a pet. I would always look for it when we went outside.”

  “Wow,” said Diana. “Were you with Dad then?”

  “Yes,” Lynn said quickly. “It was before you were born.” I had noticed that Lynn didn’t really like to talk about the time she was married to Diana’s dad.

  “Isn’t it amazing there are so many animals that are only found here on the Cayman Islands?” said Aunt Carol.

  “I think there is a geographical reason for islands to have endangered species, when you think about it,” said Lynn.

  Finally Daddy and Uncle Ted and Luke came out of the water.

  “Wow! That was just gorgeous snorkeling,” said Daddy, dropping his mask and fins on the sand, then straightening the towel on his lounge chair. “I don’t know when I’ve seen water so clear.”

  “So, what’d you think, Luke?” Aunt Carol asked.

  “The needlefish are cool,” he said. “They look like barracudas.”

  “I know!” I said. “I thought that’s what they were!”

  After getting dried off, we took the boat to Stingray City. Stingray City was a place where the stingrays were tame, and we were able to swim among them. We stood in the chest-deep water, and the stingrays swam around us, flapping their fins to propel themselves through the water like Batman. The stingrays were big, as big as a round plastic sled. Diana reached out and touched one and said that on top the skin felt rough like sandpaper, but the underside felt soft and smooth and spongy like a mushroom. I was afraid to touch them!

  Diana volunteered to feed one, so the guide showed her how to hold her hand in a fist, let the fish stick up between her fingers, and let the stingray come up and take the fish. The stingray’s mouth is a small square flap like a little trap door on its underside. Diana held her hand in a fist with the fish sticking up, and the stingray swam up and sucked it into the flap. I would never have done what Diana did! The stingrays were so big, my heart was beating really hard the whole time. It was amazing, and I was proud of myself for getting into the water. They did seem friendly.

  Once we returned from swimming with the stingrays, we had just about an hour left before the tender took us back to the ship, so we talked Diana into going to the turtle farm. Several large tanks were there where turtles of different ages swam around, from little tiny turtles only a few inches long to the older turtles as big as a sandbox. We were allowed to pick up the little ones and hold them.

  The researchers had developed a method of implanting white tissue from the turtles’ lower shell onto the dark back of their shells so that they would be marked permanently, or tagged. That way, once the turtles were released, researchers could see if females with white spots were coming back to the Cayman Islands to lay their eggs. And researchers had recently documented that some had been coming back. That was so amazing the way the turtles found their way back to their birthplace.

  Lauren videotaped me holding one of the little turtles, and it waved its front flippers in the air like it was trying to swim. Diana looked at the little turtle I was holding, and tears came to her eyes.

  “Is that one of the turtles that will be released, or will it be eaten?” she said.

  I was trying not to think about it.

  “Time to head back to the boat,” said Daddy, looking at his watch. “We’ve packed in a lot today on Grand Cayman, haven’t we?”

  As we walked out onto the dock to catch the tender, I felt sunburned and tired. We had spent the whole day in the sun. We’d seen some beautiful and amazing animals. And Lauren and Diana hadn’t fought all day! Was it too good to be true?

  And what had Guy done today? I hoped I’d see him tonight.

  9

  DIANA

  No more than thirty minutes after we got back on board, our ship left Grand Cayman. I went with Mom and Norm to stand on the upper deck to watch us pull away from the island. I could look out and see the lights of George Town begin to wink on, and Seven Mile Beach stretching away along the coastline as the sun set.

  Lauren and Stephanie had gone back to take showers before dinner because they said they were sandy and sunburned. I needed a shower, too, but I didn’t primp as much as they did, and I could take my turn last.

  Mom and Norm came and stood next to me as I leaned against the railing watching the island slip away.

  “We had a great day today, didn’t we?” Mom said.

  “Yeah.”

  “All the animals were really cool, weren’t they?”

  “Yeah. Getting to touch those stingrays was amazing.” I was trying not to think about the turtles.

  “How is everything going?” Mom asked. “Are you girls getting along okay?

  “Yeah. Fine.” I had already made the mistake of telling Grammy Verra about my argument with Lauren. She’d already told me I was wrong. I didn’t want to hear it again from Mom or Norm.

  “Okay, sweetie,” Mom said, rubbing my shoulder. “I’m glad. If you need to talk about anything, let me know.”

  “That’s right,” Norm said. “There’s a lot of togetherness on a trip like this, and it can sometimes be a challenge.”

  I wished Norm hadn’t butted into the conversation. I wished I could just have had a couple of minutes with Mom. I wanted to ask her about the trip she made with Dad where she fed the iguana. Sometimes I thought about times they were together and having fun—like that trip to Saint Thomas—and I’d wonder what happ
ened between them.

  I shook my head, as if to shake the thoughts away. Deep down I knew that wasn’t something I should spend my time thinking about. I knew it was right that they were apart and that Mom was with Norm.

  I reminded myself that Norm had always tried to be nice to me. Not to replace my dad but to be a parent. He had even pulled me out of the Big Pigeon River two summers ago when I fell out of the raft. So I bit my tongue and didn’t snap at Norm, and then I thought about how Dr. Shrink would say I was making progress.

  The evening breeze blew a bit cooler.

  “Better go get ready for dinner,” Norm said.

  So the three of us headed inside. Mom gave me a hug and a kiss on the forehead before they stepped into their room.

  “See you in a little while, sweetie,” she said.

  Just as I was going into my room, I saw something move on the hallway floor, something with a tail, scurrying. It trundled around the corner into the supply room, where a lot of towels and soaps and shampoos were being stored.

  I caught my breath. Goosebumps ran up the back of my neck. What was that?

  I let the door close. I ran down the hall and peeked into the supply storage room, scanning the floor.

  And as I leaned over a pile of folded towels, I saw a beautiful grayish-blue lizard. It was the cutest thing, with big bulging golden eyes with red rims and feet that looked like they had sucker cups on them. It stared at me, blinked, and then ran along the edge of the wall, behind another stack of towels.

  I followed it.

  What was a lizard doing on our cruise ship? Had it come from Grand Cayman? How did it get here?

  Before it could run away, I tiptoed closer, knelt, and grabbed it. It struggled, but I held on to it and put it under my T-shirt, feeling its cool, dry skin and its feet scratching on my stomach; then I went into our room. Thankfully, Stephanie and Lauren had already taken their showers and left me a note. They had gone down to the teen club to meet Guy and Evan and shoot some videos before dinner. They said for me to come join them when I got ready. Fat chance of that now that I had a pet!