Authors: Alicia Hope
Verity nodded and
shook Andy’s outstretched hand.
She knew it w
as a safety requirement for
diver
s
to buddy-up, and to never dive alone.
Andy turned to the captain saying, ‘We’re almost there. I
’ll ready
the anchor.
’
The captain
grunted and spun
on his heel to head to
the bridge, remarking
over his shoulder
, ‘Nice talking to you
,
ma’am. We’ll try to make
this a dive you won’t forget.’
Shortly afterwards
,
the Indian Princess
manoeuvred
into a good position close to Ploughman’s Reef
,
and they dropped anchor. A frenzy of activity erupted on board, with divers gearing up, buddies doing final checks
,
and crew members
supervising
divers as they
entered the water.
Because of her long chat with the skipper, V
erity found herse
lf lagging behind everyone else.
When
Royce came
over
alrea
dy dressed in wetsuit and g
ear,
appearing about to claim her as his buddy,
she
suggest
ed
he
find another
.
She
knew
he wouldn’t want to hang around in full gear, waiting for her to be
ready.
An
d she wasn’t keen on
having him watch while she stripped down to her bathers and pulled on her skin-tight wetsuit
....
She was relieved when he
went in search of another buddy.
Andy came over
just as she was zipping up her wetsuit, and
help
ed
her put on her tank and do a final gear check.
He was suited
up
and ready to go.
They were the only divers left
on board,
so t
hey
quickly
made their way
to the platform at the stern
,
and Andy leaped straight-le
gged into the clear blue water. He surfaced almost immediately
and
gave the
‘
OK
’
signal.
Verity h
eld her mask to her face, put
the regulator in her mouth and leapt from the platform. She felt the familiar effervescent burst of bubbles surround
ing
her as she entered the cool
ocean
water.
She signalled
‘
OK
’
to Andy and together they
descended
slowly
towards the ocean floor
, equalising as
they
went
.
Verity
look
ed around her,
pleased to find the water
even
clearer than she’d hoped.
Once down, s
he rolled over to swim on her back
and gaze
d
at the sky through the
water
. She
took a quick peek at her depth gauge
and thought,
wo
w
,
you wouldn’t think we’re
that far under
the surface; it looks as though I could just reach up and put my hand above the water.
S
he stretched her hand upwards and watched as the air bubbles from her regulator bounced and slid around her outstretched fingers, before heading for the surface.
Rolling
upright again
, Verity
discovered
she
’d
lost sight of Andy.
Knowing
buddies
must always stay
within sight of each other
, she quickly sought him out
and swam over to join him. On the
way,
she saw
other divers nearby, and glimpsed
the pink of Royce’s scuba tank
among the assortment of coloured gear.
It was clear he’d
taken to heart the skipper’s suggestion they the fill the boat’s
quota of crayfish. H
e was busily searching under shelves and in crevices in the reef, looking for telltale fee
lers. Verity smiled to herself.
No matter how sophisticated the man,
she thought smugly,
he’ll still be a hunter-
gatherer at heart
.
Andy was beckoning
her
to join him at what appear
ed
to be
the entrance to a cave. She swam over
and
they eased single file through the tight entrance. Verity felt the usual
twinges
of anxiety at being in a confined space under water, and was relieved when they
emerged from the long,
narrow entrance corridor. She didn’t like having to scrape through tight openings, and liked even less havi
ng to remove her gear to squeeze
through.
Glancing around, she
took in the large cavern
, lit by rays of sunlight coming through a hole in its roo
f. As she and Andy
advanced into the room, small schools of tiny fish, some brilliant purple, others iridescent yellow, floated casually
but purposefully up
wards and
through the
hole
.
Andy
touched her on the arm and
pointed
to
a number of crayfish feelers protruding from shelves in
the cave’s limestone walls.
Verity wondered if Royce would find this
well-stocked aisle in the ocean’s
seafood supermarket.
He’d certainly fill the quota from this lot
, she thought,
but I’m n
ot going to tell him about them.
I’ll leave him to find them for himself
.
She felt for the harmless creatures, preyed upon by so many
.
Observing
them in their underwater home, alive, and
then
hearing them cry out when caught, was very different to seeing them cooked and dressed on a seafood platter.
After investigating the
room’s treasures, she and Andy
followed the schools of fish
out
through the hole in the roof. Floating effortlessly up towards the rays of sunlight, Verity wondered if this was what it felt like going to Heaven.
She was broken out of her reverie by a
nother
touch on her arm. Andy was gesturing towards two other divers, Royce and his buddy, and indicating th
ey should swim
over to them.
When they reached Royce, Andy made hand signals at him, using his waving fingers to indicate crayfish feelers.
Damn,
Verity thought,
s
o much for letting Royce find the crayfish for himself. Oh well, at least I wo
n’t have to witness the hunt
.
Andy was pointin
g to the
cave he and Verity had
just explored. Royce
gave a
thumbs-up
and
headed
in that direction
. Disappointed the crayfishes’ secret was out,
Verity turned to follow Andy towards another
section of
reef
, where s
ome unusual
formations
had
caught her eye. The flat table of limestone had deep gouges running parallel to each other along
its full length
.
Ahh
, she thought,
that’s why they
call this Ploughman’s R
eef, because it looks as though someone has run a plough over it
.
As she hovered weightlessly in the water
above the reef
, she saw
movement in
the weed
y growth on its side
, and then a
cuttlefish
emerged
.
She moved closer to study it, but k
nowing their territorial nature,
made sure she stayed
out of range of its sha
rp beak
.
She remembered
a heart-warming story
she’d read,
about a diver who’d made friends with a large cuttlefish by feeding it whenever he dived in its territory.
With a hasty glance around her
,
Verity
realised she was once again alone. She scanne
d the surrounding water
but couldn’t see Andy. Looking towards the crayfish cave in case he had returned there, she saw Royce’s fins disappe
aring into the narrow opening. B
ut there was no sign of Andy, or of Royce’s buddy either.
Verity frowned and
peered
through the water. She gave a snort when
, in the distance,
she caught sight
of
the fluoro green fins of Royce’s buddy
acc
ompanied by
Andy’s yellow ones
.
Isn’t that
typical
.
H
ow careless of them to let this happen.
Men!
They only want to lead, never to follow. I su
ppose I’ll have to
pair up with Royce now.
Sighing into her mask and sending bubbles scurrying for the surface, she
finned
towards the cave ...
only to stop
abruptly
, and hover
.
She couldn’t see Royce’s fins in the narrow entrance
any more, but a mixture
of agitated
water and sand was frothing from the
opening, and Verity was certain she could hear the muffled sounds of someone calling
out
under w
ater. Quickly, she powered
to the entrance and peered inside. She could just make out a pair of white fins, frantical
ly kicking
. They stirred up the water and san
d so much she could barely see
what was happening, but she knew something was wrong.
In her mind she heard again t
he skipper’s words, ‘...
sent to
a watery grave
’
and her stomach did a back-flip. She
hurriedly
kick
ed
herself upwards, the
frenzied
action of her own fins
further
disturbing
the
sandy
ocean
floor
.
When she got above
the cave,
which
looked
like every other piece of reef, she
searched desperately for the
other
entran
ce,
the one she and Andy
had used to exit the cave. She knew it
was
there
somewhere
,
camouflaged by
coral and
weeds
, so when she couldn’t see it, s
he got close enough to feel around with her
gloved hands, and finally located
it.
Verity
wasted no time.
She
plunged into the cave’s dark interior.
Verity’s e
yes were still adjusting to the
underwater cavern
’s gloom
, but she
wasted no time in powering
towards
the opening to the
entrance corridor
. Looking
along
the narrow tunnel, she
could make out the top of Royce’s head.
He was looking away from her, towards the wall.
She pushed her way into the narrow space, cringing when
her tank scraped again
st the rocks above
. She forged ahead, and as
she drew closer to
Royce
, cold fingers of
fear clawed at her insides. She held her breath, and
then
saw him
move
. He was
twisting
and arching strangely
.
She
put
out
a hand
and
grasped his shoulder.