Under Waves

My boat was smaller than the others. It was so quick in the water that I smiled as it caught a strong wind and clipped along the surface of the water. The salty air rushed over my face. The spray wet my bare feet with warm seawater. The sounds of birds overhead meant that I was in the right place. I pulled the sail in and slowed down.

I readied my diving line, triple checking that it was fastened to the boat. I looked over the coil as well. It was still neat, but I re-wound it for safety. Perfect. The rocks I had for weights were piled up in the corner. Enough for a day’s diving, plus a few extra just in case. I already had my rope basket in my hand, tied to my wrist. Everything was ready. I lifted up one of the heavy rocks and slipped over the side into the clear blue ocean.

I loved feeling the water get cooler as I neared the bottom. The rock sent me down quickly. A little too quickly. My chest felt tighter than usual, and I hadn’t finished my count before my feet hit the sand. I waited before I moved so that my body could adjust to the depth. After I had rested for a few moments, I started searching.

I found a section that had plenty of large oysters. I worked quickly with my knife to pry them loose. My bag was only half full when I found a dark corner. There were oysters all around the edge of it, and I could just make out what looked like a clump of large oysters growing inside the mouth of the crevice. I poked my knife in to make sure it wasn’t some kind of trap. Nothing.

It was a trap. As soon as I reached inside a sharp mouth closed over my wrist, clamping down into the bones in my arm. Pain shot through my shoulder and back. I had nothing to fight with. The knife was in my trapped hand. I tried to knock at whatever held me with the oysters in my bag, but they did nothing.

I was running out of air. I yanked on my hand to try to get it loose, but the bones were too strong. I let out my final stream of bubbles. The mouth closed down harder on my arm. My lungs started to burn. I looked up. There, one hundred feet above me, my boat cast a small shadow on the surface of the water. It felt so close. I could almost reach it. The shadow grew and grew until everything was dark.