by Diana Cachey
Louisa had dived once or twice over the recreational limit and both times by mistake. One was while using rented equipment that calculated depth in meters, not feet. She saw the dive leader hovering above her and remembered she’d failed to convert the measurement in her head and thus went deeper than planned. The other time was on a night dive in the Cayman Islands, darkness and nitrogen narcosis confused her and she ended up going deeper and with a long swim through coral to the surface. Being inadvertent, both were only brief dips into the depths. It was not something to mess around with. She preferred to have an accurate depth going into the dive. Mistakes could be fatal.
She located the records regarding the sinking of the Delfino but found that there were two shipwrecks of the same name. The one they would dive tomorrow was the shallower of the two and from the records, was the one that may have contained the dishes painted with Greek images of dolphins, as pictured in the Ca’ Foscari clue. It might have possible shards of it scattered in or about it that might offer more clues.
She woke to sunny skies and was relieved that at least one obstacle, stormy weather, had been averted. She’d managed to coerce Barbara into joining them so someone could remain topside while they dove. Matteo was her dive partner and, since Tom hated him more that Barbara did, she couldn’t ask Tom to captain. Barbara was her only other option despite her lack of familiarity with boat operations. It was risky to have her but better than having no one else onboard.
The ride to the dive site was a magical and serene ride deep into the Venetian lagoon. Smooth seas, passing seagulls squawking, salt water spray on their faces, rays of sunshine bouncing off the wakes, even Barbara seemed to be enjoying it. Barbara seemed happy, different since her rendezvous in San Bortolo with the mystery man. She hadn’t been gone long and had assured Louis they’d merely enjoyed an intimate chat over dinner.
“How intimate? How much was enjoyed?” Louisa had inquired but Barbara stayed mute.
Once they reached the dive site, Matteo, ever the expert captain, dropped anchor and secured it. He even politely and patiently walked Barbara through some boat safety issues. After suiting up, Louisa glanced back at Barbara and again saw that faint look of pleasure on her face. Her three-way on Lido did something to that girl, thought Louisa just before she rolled back over the side of the boat and into the cold Adriatic waters. She gave the signal to begin their descent.
As Louisa grabbed the rope to pull herself down to the shipwreck, barnacles cut her fingers and small fibers stung her palms. She cursed herself for forgetting her dive gloves. Given the icy water, it was a stupid mistake. She winced from the pain as she pictured her gloves lying dormant on the hearth, where she left them drying after yesterday’s shallow practice dive, her first ever in the murky waters of the Venice lagoon. Matteo, her dive buddy, was entering the water behind her so she had to move fast down the rope despite the pain in her hands.
Finally her fins hit the wreck and with algae billowing up, she lowered herself down. From extensive research of the vessel, they learned that entry would be easiest at the cargo hold area but in near zero visibility she couldn’t see either the bow or stern. She needed to reorient based on rope slack but Matteo was already descending it. So with little time to waste, she used her injured hands to negotiate the wreck. Silt filtered through her fingers, gently coated her hands and washed across her face. She brushed it off her dive mask, tucking loose strands of blonde hair back into her hood.
She found an open hatch and looked back to check on Matteo before penetrating the wreck. She could barely see him. Matteo’s careless movements had stirred up quite a bit more algae and she began to seriously question her decision to dive with him today. Yet anticipation and curiosity called her into the wreck anyway. Once inside the enclosed, clouded space, she waited for Matteo and tried to quiet her nerves.
During those few minutes, she felt a rush of nausea. Her intuition urged her not to dive with Matteo, an inexperienced diver and someone who could not be trusted to think soundly on land. Ignoring her intuition, she refused to let it stop her from diving today. It wasn’t the first time she had trusted him to her dismay.
When Matteo joined her inside the wreck, they entered the main cabin where visibility was marginally better. Scouring the sunken boat for details, she recorded it foot by foot by mapping it on her slates.
Barely recognizable broken benches lie next to tables on their sides, earmarks of a once lively galley. The eerie scene reminded her why she loved diving wrecks -- their human element. She thought about the last meal this ship might have served. Fish crackling on the stove with the scent of garlic in the air.
Their dive plan was to find the main cabin then separate to search for the bridge where most likely would also be the captain’s quarters. They signaled each other to confirm the plan was on and it was ok to go. She, the more experienced and better-trained diver, would enter a small opening into a confined compartment and she turned to swim toward it. Matteo motioned he’d explore the opposite end, near a large gaping whole in the wreck, an area where you could view the open sea and a school of sardines swirling about.
Matteo had no intention of continuing directly to the bridge and when he was sure Louisa had entered the confined compartment at the opposite end of the ship, he cased the area. His eyes darted around the room, scanning it quickly, his breath slowed and instinctively and continuously he looked around and behind him. Spying some interesting cabinetry and being familiar with boats, he realized he was in the galley, began to look for drawers and instantly spotted one. He struggled for a few seconds to open it then grabbed his knife and swung it ferociously at the drawer until it relented.
Well, well, what wealth was waiting underwater to welcome me, he mused when he discovered the drawer was full of eating utensils made of what appeared to be fine silver.
Not much time, lucky he was good at what he did. Anyone on this boat won’t miss their treasure, he thought and then yanked the drawer out, dumped the contents into his mesh bag and tossed the drawer aside.
Next his attention moved to what would have been the floor. The wreck being slightly tilted on its side, he knew to look for its lowest point, logically knowing that this is where any heavier objects would have come to rest. His sharp vision, trained by years of thieving and fishing, caught a glimpse of sparkle amidst the soot. His hands carefully siphoned through the settled silt and he slowly lifted an old gold chain. He kissed it thinking, my dear darling, I am so sorry you had to sleep here alone all of these years, but now that I found you I will take very good care of you, and he placed it gleefully in a zippered pocket.
A small creature moving in the corner drew his attention. A tiny crab pulled stones and coral pieces one by one into its den, a hole in the wall. He remembered Louisa holed up in a small compartment alone.
At the opposite end of the ship, Louisa had been attempting to move carefully and nervously through several confined cabins much smaller than she had imagined they’d be. It was awful. She pictured the scene, the city of Venice only eighty feet above her, but with visibility and confinement closing in on her, it felt more like being hundreds, even, thousands, of feet at the bottom of the ocean.
Back near the bridge, Matteo spotted what looked to be bones, possibly human bones. He stepped away from them, not out of fear, but out of respect. He was an honest thief, he would never take those off the ship. So he knelt and crossed himself next to their grave, undisturbed but by the changing currents and sea life.
Now that he knew where the bridge was, he could come back to the ship later to find more trinkets and treasure, without the annoying supervision of Louisa. He then decided to initiate the predetermined signal that he had located the bridge, banging his knife on his air tank four times, like a dutiful alter boy jingling bells in church at mass.
Louisa heard the signal after the first loud clang, then Matteo’s additional three short clangs rang out. Relieved by the sound, Louisa happily began to exit one of the cabins, a space
too tight for safe exploration. Her breathing increased from the underwater confinement, she felt her heart beating loudly as it pounded in her head against her wetsuit hood. Squeezing through the exit, her air tank valve clanged against the side of the holes, holding her there momentarily. Grateful for her training, she took a long slow breath and calmly maneuvered out. Next she turned and found herself in another crowded and silt clouded area.
Had she gone through two cabins after entering the hatch, or three? Stupidly she had been so excited about the lettering she found in the engine room and was so busy taking pictures of it that she had forgot to record it on the slate. In her haste to circle the area and reorient, her foot caught on something and entwined her leg. No sooner had she figured out where the exit from that area was, something caught her foot, by the ankle and she was helpless to proceed.
I’m screwed, screwed, screwed. I’m gonna die. Where is Matteo? Her mind reacted to the entanglement in this way instead of remembering the repetitive phrase Louisa learned to compose herself during moments like these. If you are breathing you’re okay. She repeats the mantra then thinks, I’m so screwed but if you panic, you will die.
Not enough to calm her, but a small positive reinforcement nonetheless.
Think, think, think, Stuck, stuck, stuck. Stop, breathe, think, then act, her training instinctively told her.
She stopped, took several long deep breathes and it calmed her.
Ah yes, now what do I do? Act, act, act. She wasn’t sure how to get untangled or what was tangling her.
To get out, do everything you did before getting hooked but in reverse.
She maneuvered back inside the hole to detangle and eventually, it worked, she was loose, but her air gauge showed how much exertion she’d used. Her air supply had dropped, nothing seemed to be working out right.
Where is Matteo?
She tried to breathe slower still, paying attention and exhaling slowly, saving each drop. She clamped down hard on the regulator, her air source, to hold it in place and breathe deeper.
Put my turtleneck over my mouth to hold in my regulator in case I pass out before Matteo notices I’m missing.
The air, which naturally expanded and swelled as she ascended within the wreck, provided more puffs of air for her. She closed her eyes and prayed.
Thank you for my life. My sister, my job, my beautiful Venice. Everything you have given me and everyone else. Everything else. Matteo will see me. Where did he go?
She tried to inhale. No air, it seemed, but she had hyperventilated a bit from nerves. It only felt like no air because it was harder to breath. I will try again, she thought and took a deep breath of air this time.
I’m not unconscious, she reminded herself, so I’ve got air. There must be more in the tank, more bits left in my lungs. According to the physics of gas, the air would expand as she ascended.
If I weren’t already wet, I would feel tears. She imagined the ocean around her as one big endless sea of tears. Like the song says, sea of tears. What is that song? Is that a song? I am so screwed.
Able to tap into her extensive training, Louisa thought she had wiggled out of another jam. She cursed herself for the stupidity and chances she had taken on this dive. Once back in the galley, she stopped again to slow her breathe further then swam to follow the sound of her partner’s signal, but underwater it seemed to be coming from all around her. She looked around and couldn’t see a thing. Matteo had significantly disturbed the silt during his exploration of the galley.
Now what? she thought. Another big mistake. They hadn’t planned a signal for “I can’t find you.” She remembered her instructor’s saying, stop, think, then act. These thoughts battled with the salty water tricking into her mouth through her mouthpiece.
Then her deep wreck diving friends’ motto came to her rescue, “If you are breathing, you are safe. Don’t panic.” She calmly but forcefully blew through her mouthpiece, purged the salty water and took in three slow breaths. She saw light from the hole Matteo had entered but barely saw his large form looming towards her.
She tried to breathe, but her regulator now seemed to be squeaking and she struggled to get air. She held up her gauge to check air supply, almost depleted. Wait no God thank you again. My life was good. She begged her creator to magically send Matteo mental signals, as she could barely see and wasn’t sure he would see her if he was near. The idea of diving separate even for a few minutes was proving more ridiculous with each passing second. She needed his alternate air source and clanked her tank furiously hoping to get his attention. She did but he thrashed around looking for her, further diminishing her visibility.
She felt herself drifting to sleep, almost completely out of air, aggressively banging her tank had used the remaining air in her lungs. She vaguely wondered if the turtleneck would hold her regulator in her mouth if she passed out while she moved towards the surface.
The human body being a marvelous mechanism for survival, the heart slowed down while she gently kicked her way up towards what she hoped was the surface. She continued to blow slowly out so that the expanding air in her lungs did not burst them and the air did expand in her lungs and tank, serving up another last small puff of air. The surface seemed miles away but she saw the anchor rope. It was too far to swim to the rope, it was reassurance nonetheless, assisted as a visual reference to climb further, and served to calm her and slowed her pulse rate plenty so that her last puff of air would last longer.
With a jolt, Louisa’s head shot back and her mouthpiece was being ripped from her mouth. She instinctively fought it, but her air source was replaced by another one also being forced into her mouth. Matteo had offered her his spare air.
She took a large breath and of course breathed in the small bit of water that was in the regulator from sitting in the open water while Matteo dove. After all Louisa had been through on this dive, she was not thinking at all and this tiny bit of water frightened her and caused her to cough the regulator out of her mouth. Flailing about and now having lost two regulators, she’d exposed her mouth to the open sea, however, Matteo skillfully retrieved it from behind his tank in the classic arm sweep perfectly executed. He placed it back in her mouth, this time held it tight, one hand on the mouth piece and the other behind her head. They hung there for a moment and he pushed the purge valve but Louisa continued to hold her breath frightened, struggling to get away.
When she saw his eyes intent on her, she heard muffled words coming through his regulator as he tried to talk to her through his teeth. “Breathe fucking breathe Louisa.”
She did and got the tiniest bit of water along with a steady stream of air. Her mask was now almost completely flooded with water but he calmly held her until he knew she was sensible and not panicked anymore then he motioned her to clear it. She could barely see the signal, but she cleared the water from her mask while he held his spare air firm in her mouth.
Come on, woman, thought Matteo, angry that his treasure hunt was cut short.
They swam to the surface just after Barbara reentered the boat after an impulsive jump into the sea, something she’d never done before in open water.
Once on the boat, Louisa noticed her sister Barbara’s soaked hair.
“It rained while we were down,” Louisa said, not asking just noting it.
“Yes,” Barbara responded quickly. She lied.
“Ah yes it did,” Matteo said. Somehow he sensed that she lied and came to her defense. “How else would she be wet, fool? By jumping in?” He squinted his eyes and grinned at Barbara.
“Fat chance of my sister doing that,” Louisa quipped. They couldn’t tell if it rained or not during their dive.
“Well, Venice,” mumbled Matteo, pausing for the right word to use for emphasis, “changes people.” He said in his thick sexy Venetian accent. He grinned then started the engine.
He motioned to Barbara, patted the seat next to him at the helm. Barbara shrugged.
“Your sister was a disaster,” he s
aid to her. “Idiota.”
“What happened?’ Barbara wouldn’t grace Matteo with her attention and directed the question to Louisa.
“Come, I tell you how she try to die down there,” he said. “I save her of course.”
Louisa glared at him, yet was so grateful for his quick actions and impeccable emergency skills that she simply said, “That’s your job, dive buddy.”
“Oh and what if I have problems too? Your dive plan was a disaster. Idiota. Disaster.”
“We both lived, didn’t we?”
“Is not enough. You take me down, you make a good plan, not a disaster. Capice?”
Louisa could not argue. This plan was a disaster but it had been Matteo’s idea to separate briefly.
She’d not failed to recognize the treasure laying in his dive sack, old silverware and other items he pilfered from the ship. She knew he’d steal as much booty as possible from the wreck, the real reason he’d agreed to dive. What else had he been doing down there? Looting that ship of silverware would take an experienced thief like Matteo a matter of minutes. Meanwhile she had completely exhausted her air supply stuck in the bow. Even with the difficulties she experienced, Louisa was no air hog. Matteo had a good twenty minutes to explore the boat before he came to her rescue.
“The dive successful for you anyway, Matteo,” she said, “I see it was fruitful.” She held his mesh bag high to peruse its contents.
He snatched it from her.
“My payment. For your life.”
“Oh, I thought that’s what dive buddies were for, Matteo, to assist their partners.”
“Among other things,” he said and winked at her.
“Like what? To rob the boat.”
“Like captain the boat. To get there and find the stupid wreck. For you.”