The Sky Beneath Her(57)

He ripped off his mask and wiped the water from his face. “Yeah, fine.”

I’d seen fear in other divers’ faces before. No one was immune from close calls. “You don’t look fine.”

He drew in a breath, filling his lungs with air. “I’m not usually so claustrophobic.”

“It’s okay. Each dive is different. Did you tell Nathan you were coming up?”

“No. I didn’t think to find him.”

He’d panicked. I looked out over the smooth waters, expecting Nathan to appear any moment. “How deep did you dive?”

“One hundred and fifty feet.”

“Did you take safety stops on the way up?”

“One.”

He’d risen too quickly. He should have ascended at thirty feet per minute. “Have a seat. Let me get you a water.”

“I’m fine.”

“If you were fine, you’d be below the surface.” I fished a water bottle from the cooler and shoved it at him. “Sit and drink the water.”

He sat and with a trembling hand raised the bottle to his mouth.

“It’s happened to me,” I said. “The ocean is powerful, and we just don’t realize it until we’re under it.”

“It wasn’t the water,” he insisted. “I’ve dived a hundred times before.”

“What happened? Did something spook you?”

“The wreck.”

“Have you dived wrecks before?”

He sniffed and stared out over the water as if he expected to see something. “In the Caribbean. But it was a small boat.”

“The waters are darker here, and this wreck is huge.”

He looked at me as if he were really seeing me for the first time since he’d returned to the boat. “You’ve seen it?”

“Yeah, once. My mom was kind of an expert on the Oceanus.” I left out the end of Mom’s story.

Dark lashes shadowed his eyes. He was silent for a moment, and then: “Has anyone ever said the Oceanus is haunted?” He looked embarrassed to ask the question. I supposed because it was just the two of us, he thought he could.

My first thought was Mom, not the other lost souls. Was Mom still lingering around the Oceanus? You still at that wreck, Mom?

He gulped down more water. “When’s the last time you were there?”

“Seven years.”

Another head popped to the surface. “Hey!”

I rushed to the side of the boat. It was Nathan, and he looked pissed. He’d shot that look at me before when a diver broke ranks.

Small waves lapped and struck the side of the boat. “Tony is fine. He’s here with me.”

He gave me a thumbs-up, and without a word, he put his regulator back into his mouth and dove under the surface.

“Next time, let your dive instructor know you’re leaving. Kind of freaks them out when you don’t,” I said.

“Yeah. I should’ve told him. But I had kind of a panic attack.”

“It happens.”

“What do you know about the wreck?” Tony asked.

More than I wanted to. “Too much.”

“Can you give me the one-minute pitch?”

I filled him in on the ship’s voyage from Cape Town to Port of Spain and then to right here, where she’d sunk.

“How many people died here?” he asked.

“Nineteen when the ship was torpedoed,” I said. Twenty total souls lost if you counted Mom.

“That’s a lot of bodies.”

“That’s why no one goes into the wreck. It’s a final resting place.”

He took another swig of water. “I had no intention of going inside. Well, I did, but I never made it that far. I wasn’t even close when I saw it.”

The sun winked on the ocean’s smooth waters. “Saw what?”

“It could have been a fish. I don’t know. But it was something large and floating above the wreck. It looked like it was coming toward me.”

Lots of schools of random fish, sharks, and skates were in these waters. “Can you describe it better?”

“I’m not sure. Big, white, floaty. Like a ghost.”

“Or like a fish?”

“I don’t think so. Reminded me of a cloud.”

Again, I thought of Mom’s eternal soul and the nineteen souls guarding the wreck.

“I know, it sounds crazy,” Tony said. “Do you believe me?”

“I believe there are all kinds of things under the water we can’t explain. But you’re here. And you’re safe. Take the win.”

“Did you see anything when you dove the wreck?”

“No. I was running out of air. And I was worried about getting back to the boat. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t see something.”

He shook his head. “You think I’m nuts.”

“Not at all. Just upset. You saw something that spooked you. So, chill. Breathe deep. The others will be back up soon.”

He crushed the plastic water bottle in his fist. “Don’t tell them, okay? I’ll look like a pussy.”

“I won’t say a word.”

I moved back to the edge of the boat and checked my watch. I sat on the side, watching the ocean.