“They’re fine, Erin, trust me. But, just to be on the safe side…They don’t like anything shiny, like watches, jewelry, that kind of thing, so—”
I hastily remove both my rings and thrust them at him.
“What else is in there, Mark?” I brace myself.
He takes the rings. “There’s a chance that there might be gray reef sharks…two meters.”
Fine.
“Whitetip sharks, silvertips…three meters.”
Fine.
“And…stingray? Maybe…”
Fine too,they’re like the manta rays in the lagoon but smaller.
“And turtles,” he continues.
Lovely, love them.
“And, maybe, but probably not—and, you know, even if we do see them then don’t worry, they’ll keep their distance, it’ll be fine—but there might be tiger sharks.”
Oh. My. God.
Even I know about these. These are real sharks. Big sharks. Four to five meters long.
I’m really not sure about this dive now. I look at Mark. He looks at me, just the sound of lapping waves against the boat’s hull. He laughs.
“Erin? Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” I say, reluctantly.
“They might come toward you but they will not hurt you, okay?” He holds my gaze.
“Okay.” I nod.Okay.
Just breathe. That’s all you need to do,I tell myself.Breathe. It’s just like the pool. It’ll be just like the pool.
We finish suiting up and slip into the water. It’s nice buddy-checking with Mark again. Safe. Plus he’s pretty easy on the eyes. He holds my look.Are you okay?
I nod.I am okay.
Then we slip beneath the water. We descend slowly. My eyes are glued to Mark; I follow every hand signal, every move. And then he points, and I see it.
I could glimpse the wreck through the water from up in the boat, but now that we’re under the waves I can see it crystal clear ahead of us. We descend. As my eyes adjust to the light I start to notice fish, darting about our bubbles as they rise back to the surface. I follow a parting fish with my eyes and see it join a shoal, under the shadow of the speedboat, a column of twisting and turning silver.
I look back to Mark. He’s controlling our descent, nice and slow. No sudden moves. He’s looking after me, his face angled down at his wrist computer, his expression one of intense concentration. We hit five meters and pause for a check. Mark signalsOkay?
Okay,I signal. We’re doing fine.
He signals to continue the descent. He’s doing thisso completely by the book that I can’t help grinningbehind my regulator mouthpiece. I’m in good hands.
I look down and see coral on some rocky outcrops a good five meters below us. I look back up. The surface is nearly ten meters away now, dancing brightly above us.
I look to Mark. Suspended in blue. Outside of time. He looks to me and smiles.
We sink. A movement in my periphery view. Notan object, but a change in color depth just beyond my field of vision.
