by Watt Key
“Don’t even think about turning around,” I said.
“I’m not!” he said.
Once I got into my wetsuit again I swam to him and grabbed my BCD.
“Are you done?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m done. You can turn around.”
He watched while I got into my BCD and slipped my fins back on.
“That couldn’t have been easy,” he said.
“It wasn’t,” I replied. “Don’t try it. I might be able to cut enough fabric from my skinsuit for all of us. Besides, yours is black and it might get too hot.”
When I was floating again I took out my knife and began cutting the legs and arms off the skinsuit. Then I cut out two eye holes and a mouth slit into one of the legs and gave it to Shane.
“Pull it over your face and see how it does.”
He did. It was tight but looked like it would work.
“Not bad,” he said.
I made another one and told him to pull it over his dad’s face. Finally, I tried to fit a sleeve over my own head but it was too small. I cut slits in the torso section and found it to fit much better.
I heard Mr. Jordan mumbling something as Shane worked with him.
“It’s all right, Dad,” Shane said. “It’s to keep the sun off.”
I saw Mr. Jordan fumbling his hands over his face, making it difficult. Shane finally managed to get the cloth over his head and position the holes so that his eyes blinked back at us, dull and crazed.
“Leave it on,” Shane said to him.
The man’s hands slowly sank to his sides again. Either he understood or didn’t have the energy to fight the mask. I put the knife up and considered my two companions. I thought we made a strange sight, like bank robbers dropped into the ocean from above.
16
As the sun climbed higher in the sky it seemed to focus all of its heat directly on our heads. I felt I’d won a small victory with the skinsuit masks, but I knew that nothing we did was a permanent fix. I was starting to believe that none of my defenses really mattered anymore. My exposed skin below the water was soggy white and as dead-looking as cadaver meat. It felt like the sea lice were eating it from my bones. And if my outside environment wasn’t enough to finish me off, dehydration was attacking me from the inside, leaving my mouth and throat swollen. The agonizing pain, both mental and physical, was like nothing I’d ever felt or imagined.
“I got kicked out of school,” I heard Shane say.
After a moment I said, “What?”
“I got kicked out of school,” he repeated.
I wasn’t sure why he was telling me this, but it didn’t cross my mind to have any sympathy for him.
“What’d you do?”
“I got caught cheating. Twice. On my final exams.”
I wasn’t surprised.
“Now I’m going to boarding school,” he continued.
“Well, you can start over then.”
“I guess so,” he said.
“You don’t have any friends, do you?”
“Yeah, I have friends,” he said defensively.
“Like who?” I challenged.
“Nobody you know. You don’t even live here anymore.”
“How can you have friends when you act like a spoiled brat?”
“You think I act like a spoiled brat?”
“Are you kidding? You argue with your dad over who gets the newest speargun. There’s people who would work all summer to have your old dive equipment.”
“He drives me crazy. Nothing I do is good enough for him.”
“What’s that got to do with it? I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to be nice to people. Why would you want to be a jerk?”
“I wish you’d stop calling me that.”
“Fine,” I said. “I’m sorry for calling you names.”
“And I got the coordinates of the Malzon tanks on my iPhone.”
I turned and faced him. “See, you’re a total jerk, Shane! You know how long and hard my dad worked to find those tanks? You know how much he gave up for that?”
“I—”
“He wrecked our family over those things! And you think you can steal it all on his first trip out? Just when he was finally heading in the right direction. You’re hopeless!”
“It was—”
“You and your dad both deserve whatever you’ve got coming. And it really sucks that I’ve got to go down with you.”
“It was a mistake,” he said.
“Oh, now it is. I’m sure it’s all a mistake now. Now that I’m the only one who can save your butt. Yep, here I am. The girl who was going to bring up your fish. Shut up and don’t talk to me.”
“I didn’t have to tell you,” he said.
I lifted my arm and made a fist and held it before him. “Shut up!” I warned.
* * *
The sun was directly overhead, hot and getting hotter, while my body from the neck down was cold and getting colder. None of us were talking, and Mr. Jordan even appeared to be sleeping. Time passed like there was no real system to it at all, like it was something you imagined, something that Mother Nature could slow down and use to torture us.
I heard a splashing to my right. I turned to rest my eyes on a sea turtle that must have been five feet across. It flipped its way easily along the surface, not the least bit alarmed by us.
“Is it dangerous?” Shane asked.
I didn’t answer him.
I thought about the turtle and how comfortable it was way out here in this desolate landscape. There was nothing it could do for us, but it made me feel better to finally see something else alive. And the turtle was a connection with land. Perhaps it had even been born on the beach in Gulf Shores.
“Got any news, Mr. Turtle?” I said.
It came slowly past me, so close I reached out and touched its soft, leathery shell. Then I had a strange thought. Maybe, way out here where no one would ever know, it might talk to me. Maybe all of nature’s creatures really could communicate with us, but didn’t. They let us believe we were so smart and watched us and laughed at us. And only when we were about to die would this big trick be revealed.
“Talk to us,” I said.
“You’re losing it,” Shane mumbled.
“Shut up, Shane,” I said.
The turtle paddled away and loneliness and misery settled over me again. The thirst was the worst of it all. So bad that I started to think about drowning. How it might be the best way to go. Nothing, I decided, could be worse than being thirsty. But a small voice inside me reasoned that if I was facing death I might as well fight it. There was really nothing to lose. The end result was all the same.
17
According to my dive watch, it was two o’clock in the afternoon when we reached blue water. The wall was so defined that I could float on the green side of it and stick my hand through into the blue. It was enormous and remote and as frightening as something from outer space. The current was going to pull us beyond it no matter what we did, but the wall was no place I wanted to linger.
I began swimming until I felt the tug of my companions against the line behind me.
“Get away from it,” I said.
The tone of my voice was enough to keep Shane from asking questions. He tugged his father and followed me out of the green and into the blue swells.
After a few minutes I stopped and rested.
“What’d you see?” he said.
“Nothing,” I said. “I just didn’t like it.”
“What makes the water so different out here? Why the blue?”
“There’s more particles in the green. It reflects the light differently.”
“If we had a map, where would this be?”
“Somewhere between Alabama and the Florida peninsula. It moves.”
“The line moves?”
“Yeah, it moves with the tide and current. Can you stop asking questions?”
“There’s got to be fishermen out here,”
he said, ignoring me. “There’s got to be somebody, right?”
I didn’t answer him.
“I’m itching all over. I think those sea lice are in my wetsuit. Are they eating me?”
I hoped they were. When I didn’t respond Shane turned to me. He watched me, but I wouldn’t look at him.
“Dad told me to get those coordinates, Julie. It wasn’t my idea.”
“I don’t care anymore,” I said. “Stop talking.”
“It’s just us now. I don’t want to die like this.”
He had a point. If anything, it was tiresome being angry. Tiresome and senseless in the face of what we were up against.
“No,” I said. “They’re not eating you.”
“They’re driving me crazy.”
I finally turned to him. “I don’t understand how your dad being a jerk gives you an excuse to be one,” I said.
“I think I’m mad at him all the time. And it makes me mad at everybody else. The reason I’m never good enough for him is that I just cost him money.”
I looked at Mr. Jordan. There was no sign he heard us talking about him.
“Money sucks,” I said.
“So you know what I mean?”
“In a different way. My parents are messed up over trying to make it. Yours are messed up over trying to spend it.”
“Is that why they got divorced?”
“I don’t know, really. Sometimes I think that if Dad was any good at making money, then Mom would have been happier. But now Mom’s making a lot of money and she seems more unhappy than ever.”
“And then you die and it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Nope.”
“And maybe we could have been friends,” he said.
I shook my head. “You really are clueless.”
“What?”
“Us being friends has nothing to do with whether or not either of us has money. You have to care about somebody besides yourself. You’re not nice.”
“Well, you’re the one who punches people in the face. What’s with you and the attitude?”
I looked at him. “What’s with you and your stupid long hair?”
He stared back at me with the ridiculous mask over his face. I imagined his look saying But you can’t even see my hair. And it was all suddenly funny to me.
I began to laugh uncontrollably, and a moment later Shane was laughing with me.
“You look like something out of a bad homemade horror movie,” I said. “Like an iPhone horror movie.”
“I can be nice,” he finally said.
“Okay, when’s the last time you were nice?”
“We took a field trip to a nursing home before school let out. I met this old lady and played bingo with her.”
“What was her name?”
“Well, I don’t remember.”
“So she’s just Old Lady?”
“I played bingo with her!” he said defensively. “And I knew her name at the time. But I don’t remember it now.”
I chuckled. “Okay. At least you have a little bit of heart.”
We drifted along without speaking for a few minutes.
Then Shane said something else. “I cried when my grandfather died.”
I looked at him.
“I stayed in my room for a week and wouldn’t come out.”
“You must have really liked him.”
“He was the nicest person I ever knew. Dad never got along with him, so we didn’t see him much. But sometimes he’d drive down from White Hill in his old pickup and get me, and we’d spend the day together.”
“My grandparents are dead,” I said. “I wish I’d known them.”
“I called him Papa. He didn’t have a lot of money, but I never felt better than when I was with him. He loved to fish more than anything, but he always took me to the movies instead.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew it was what I wanted to do, not what he wanted to do. And then we’d go out for some cheap Mexican food and talk about the movies and what we thought of them.”
“Why didn’t they get along?”
Shane looked at his father. “I think Dad was ashamed.”
“Of what?”
Shane turned to me again.
“Of growing up poor,” he said. “Of having a dad who worked at a service station.”
Plenty of times I’d found myself frustrated with my own dad, but I was never ashamed of him.
“I thought one day I could be a lawyer,” Shane said. “And then he’d be proud of me.”
“It’s not worth it,” I said.
“It’s got to be. He’s the only friend I’ve got.”
I started to make a snide comment about Shane admitting that he really didn’t have any friends after all, but something in his voice made me keep quiet. I looked down past my fins at the blue water descending in bent sunbeams into the blackness of unimaginable depths. I thought of how small and whiny our problems seemed in comparison.
18
I felt something rough brush against my leg. I yelped and jerked it away instinctively.
“What?” Shane asked.
Before I even lowered my head, I knew. Underneath me I saw the sleek gray body gliding below.
So they’re here. To finish us off.
My mind raced, remembering everything I’d learned about shark defense. I’d listened to Dad talk about sharks. I’d seen hundreds of them from the Barbie Doll. I’d even encountered a few up close on dives, but I’d never had to defend myself against one. The sharks I’d seen underwater were always curious at first, circling and inspecting us. There were mostly black tips, but occasionally we’d see nurse and bull sharks. Dad would signal to surface immediately and get into the boat before they had a chance to get aggressive.
I swam to Shane and grabbed him and Mr. Jordan.
“We’ve got to huddle up,” I said. “Facing out.”
Shane resisted. “What?” he asked again.
“Shark,” I said, shoving him. “Turn around. Lock arms with me and your dad.”
We locked elbows and formed a tight triangle. I held the speargun across my chest and felt myself trembling. Mr. Jordan mumbled something that I couldn’t understand.
“Shoot it with the speargun,” Shane said.
“Be quiet,” I said.
“How many?”
“I only saw one. It bumped me.”
“I’ll bet there’s more,” he said. “There’s always more.”
“Stop talking,” I said.
I yanked off the sun mask and stuffed it into a pocket on the front of my BCD. Then I slipped my diving mask on, gathered my courage, and lowered my face into the water. I looked around and saw nothing.
“Is it gone?” Shane said. “Tell me it’s gone.”
I didn’t answer him. I kept searching. Then I saw it again, a dull gray sliver far below, circling, contemplating us. Contemplating a lot of things.
Sharks only have two small blind spots, one in front of their snouts and one directly behind their heads. The way their catlike eyes are positioned on their heads gives them nearly a 360-degree view. Dad said they see the world like a black-and-white IMAX movie, considering everything that moves on the big screen a possible meal.
Shane suddenly kicked out and shouted, “Crap!”
I jerked my head around and looked at him.
“I s-saw it,” he stammered. “I almost touched it with my fin.”
I put my face into the water again and saw another gray sliver directly below us. This shark looked to be nearly eight feet long.
“It’s another one,” I told him. “Put your mask on and watch them. Kick for the snout or the gills.”
“I can’t kick out with the fins,” he said.
“You’re right,” I said. “Take them off, but don’t lose them. Stuff yours down my back, and I’ll stuff mine down yours.”
We quickly struggled with our fins until we had them free and jammed down where we’d held the speargun. Mr. J
ordan wasn’t going to be any help, so we were just going to have to drag him about and look after him and us at the same time.
“I’m getting my knife out,” Shane said.
“Don’t touch your knife,” I snapped. “If you cut our BCDs by mistake we’re dead.”
“We’re already dead,” he replied.
I felt the same way, but I didn’t want to admit it. It was all I could do to remain calm. Fear hummed in my ears and I felt it in my jaw. I wanted to scream against the impulse to draw myself into a ball and give up.
“Don’t get out your knife,” I said again. “Kick them. They’re only curious right now. Sometimes they’ll leave.”
Shane didn’t agree with me, but he didn’t reach for his knife either. He took off his sun mask and put it in his BCD pocket. Then he got his dive mask over his face, locked arms with me and his dad again, and peered into the water. There was another one now. Three sharks circling not twenty feet below us, more than we could keep our eyes on. The largest of them had a scar on its side like something had bitten a chunk out of it. The other two looked like twins.
“I see three,” Shane said.
I didn’t answer him. I swung the speargun out and held it before me. It wasn’t cocked, but I reasoned if I could poke them in the face with the sharp point it would alarm them more than a blunt kick. They looked like bull sharks, but to me, all sharks were basically the same, and knowing what kind they were wasn’t going to help us.
The shark with the scar broke circle and swam out of my vision.
“Where’s that one going?” Shane said. “Crap! Where’s he going?”
“Look for him,” I said. “I’ll keep watching these other two.”
Suddenly Mr. Jordan grunted, and I spun to see Scar gliding away. I let go of Shane and put my face back into the water, looking Mr. Jordan over for any wounds.
“Did he bite him?” Shane shouted.
I couldn’t see any signs of injury.
“No,” I said. “I think he just bumped him.”
“Why do they keep doing that?”
I locked elbows with them again. “Trying to find out what we are,” I said.
“What if they come after Dad?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know, Shane! Do what you can.”
Scar rejoined the other two below us for only a moment before breaking away again.