Diving

 

Chapter 7

DIVING

 

The morning after, Camette was still very mystified by the silver broach. It was exactly what she wanted for her shop, with a good supply of these broaches she would make a killing. For herself she wanted a genuine antique.

“I’d like to see that broach he was wearing close up,” she thought to herself, and decided to ask Irving about it when he got there. She duly repeated the thought to him when he arrived.

“We’ll go and buy one as soon as the festivities are over,” he answered..

“Don’t disillusion me. It might even be genuine.”

“Nothing we’ve seen here is real. For centuries no one came up here. The ritual was ‘revived’, shall we say, when the island entered the tourism business.”

“How do you know ?”

“I’ve been talking to the hotel manager. There’s something weird here. That’s it. What we have seen yesterday and today are nothing more than setups to keep the tourists happy. They enjoy seeing village festivities, it makes then them feel that they really are abroad. It’s easy to keep them happy, the regular tourist doesn’t go too deeply into things. He isn’t interested in whether the ritual is true or not. They’re on holiday and the festivity forms part of it.”

“How cynical you are!” she declared.

“I’m not cynical, but the tour operators are. I’m here to find something strange or different �" and that’s what I’m going to do.”

“If everything is a hoax, how am I going to take home an antique from here?”

“Do as Sonila says, and take Gus with you,”  Irving said laughing.

“That’s right. Go on. Laugh at me. By the way, haven’t we got a date with Amanta and Jorge?”

“That’s right. We’re going diving in the underwater caves.”

 

The night of the ritual the seas had become turbulent, and more than one joker said the fish were coming after them! In aquariums and fish bowls the water had also trembled for no apparent reason. Mavis found water on top of the dressing table where she had put the fruit bowl. She changed the water several times a day and every time she found the water murky. Don suggested returning the fish to the sea, but Mavis was against the idea. “I’m becoming fond of him. I can’t throw him back.”

“Getting fond of a fish! I’m going to look for a good analyst as soon as we get home. You’ve got some screws loose. I’m going to find Gus. Coming? Or are you staying behind with your little fish?”

Mavis didn’t want to admit to anyone, and much less to Don, that she was hypnotized by the little guest in the fruit bowl. He was irresistible. The fish’s gaze followed her everywhere. Don would be incapable of understanding, he had never been fond of  animals. For him the only use an animal had was to be eaten, and to put bets on to make money. As she didn’t want an altercation with him, Mavis gave in and said that she’d be happy to go out with him and Gus.

 

Amanta and Jorge, together with Irving and Camette, and the diving equipment of the four, all travelled in a four-wheel drive. Irving would rather have gone to the cliff with Camette on the motorbike, but the other couple had suggested they go with them in such a way that it made Irving and Camette feel obliged to give in.

Jorge spoke ceaselessly all the way about how well they knew the island and the other islands in the archipelago. “Amanta and I have been diving around all the islands here.”

“What do you do?” asked Camette. “I’ve got an antique shop, and Irving looks for strange things and writes about them.”

“Business,” answered Jorge dryly.

Irving and Camette were not surprised to see that Jorge knew how to get to the cliff that was above the bay with the shipwrecks and the caves. It had occurred to Irving to take his binoculars, so when they arrived he took them out and looked. At other times the sea was crystal clear revealing to any observer all its secrets, such as the remains of the ships, the black pointed rocks, and the fish. Irving was not all that convinced it would be a perfect day for diving, and even less for going inside the caves. Something bothered him. Camette knew this by the seriousness of his face, “What’s the matter? Don’t you fancy diving today?”

Irving handed her the binoculars, “Tell me what you see.”

Camette focused the binoculars, “Are they working properly? I can only see the blue sky and a milky white sea.” She lowered the binoculars and returned them to Irving. “The sea! What’s happened to the sea?”

“I don’t know. Don’t say another word, here comes Amanta.”

“Are you ready for our first underwater trip together?” Amanta asked them. She seemed to be more used to diving gear than street wear. Amanta went ahead climbing down the cliff face as if it were asphalt, very sure of how and where toshe put her feet.

They got into the sea where Irving had gone the first time. Camette tried to keep close to Irving but the appalling visibility made it difficult. The light from the torches hardly penetrated the lugubrious water. Jorge and Amanta, with the others behind them, went round the remains of the ship that appeared even more sinister when lying untouched by the sun’s rays. Irving indicated to Camette by a nudge with his elbow to look at the large loose rocks that appeared inside the timbers of the ship that had come to rest on the sea bed. But where had they come from? There was no sign of a landslide off the cliff, then what on earth could have happened?

The mouth of the cave was getting nearer, and visibility was almost non-existent. It was as if they were swimming in soup. Camette felt panic and fear overtaking her and indicated to Irving that she was going up. Irving wasn’t willing to continue with the dive either, besides, the idea of being alone in the presence of something unknown didn’t appeal to him. What’s more, she was his diving buddy. So they rose to the surface together, removed the masks and bottles, and finally settled down on the sand. Amanta and Jorge were still underwater.

Irving and Camette had some precious moments alone to be able to speak freely.

“Did you see the rocks inside the wreck? Besides that, everything else was as it should be. What can have happened and how is it possible?” Camette asked.

“As a searcher for strange things I’m in my element. There are many things that are continually happening, with no rhyme or reason. They occur and that’s it, without any logical explanation.”

“For example ?”

“The fresh water on the central stone of the temple floor and the turbulent waters during the festivity. The fact that Sonila won’t leave the hotel unless she is accompanied. Mavis appears to be stupefied by something. And those two down there underwater, what are they really up to here?”

“Sh! Quiet, Irving, I can see their bottles.”

Indeed, Amanta and Jorge surfaced and came out of the water. Both of them had a look of bad temper on their faces. “What do you think you two were up to? Leaving us down there without signalling to us you were going to come up. Don’t you know the rules?” said a very angry Jorge.

Amanta looked at the couple in disdain. “Don’t bother, Jorge, they’re not worth it, they’re a couple of scaredy cats.”

“I can assure you that the next time you won’t repeat this behaviour,” Jorge added.

Irving interrupted them, “And the next time the sea had better be clean. What’s happened; pollution, an explosion? Why is there no visibility down there? On my previous visits it was clean.” Irving cautiously refrained from mentioning the fallen rocks.

“Come on, let’s go. It’s obvious that these two are amateurs,” said Amanta. “A professional knows how to behave underwater.”

Nobody spoke any more about it on the return journey to the hotel. On getting out of the vehicle Jorge told them “Don’t forget we are going to visit the curator of the museum.”

“I hope you two will behave yourselves. The curator is a dream, you’ll see,” said Amanta maliciously, and said goodbye with a wave of her hand.