Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
WREN
I am going to die saving this complete stranger.
The thought reeled through Wren’s head on a loop as she plunged through the cave opening, mostly because her brain couldn’t compute any other logical thought. In any case, all logical thought seemed to have stopped the moment Nick had been swept into the cave mouth, because she’d leaped in after him without a moment’s hesitation. The last thing she could remember was the raised voices of the onlookers – shouts of alarm and disbelief.
She could understand what they meant now she was in the tunnel, being buffeted against the walls, only a foot or so of air space above her to breathe. It was dark and chaotic – she could hardly tell what was up and down, but it was also a mercifully quick journey, thanks to the sucking tide of water pulling her inwards. She emerged, thrashing, into the cave, which, despite its reputation for being magical and breathtaking, was shadowy and dim.
She trod water, her heart racing as she looked around, dreading seeing a floating form in the water. But what she saw instead was Nick, looking pitifully like Tom Hanks in that castaway film, dripping wet and perched on a small platform of rock at the side of the cave. His wetsuit was ripped from neck to stomach, revealing his heaving chest as he caught his breath. He gestured her over and she was propelled, mostly by the surging water, partly by a frantic doggy paddle, to the outcrop of rock. His strong arms helped to hoist her as she scrambled up.
At first, she just stared at him, panting, as he did the same. Then, bizarrely, they both started to laugh, Wren covering her mouth with her hand, wide-eyed with shock. The noise reverberated off the walls and they stopped, blinking into the gloom.
‘Okay, I’ll start,’ said Nick, still breathing heavily. ‘What the fuck just happened there?’
Wren shook her head. ‘I think we just made a terrible mistake.’
‘Well, you did,’ he said, grimacing. ‘What possessed you to dive in after me? If that’s what happened… Or did you fall in as well?’
‘No, I’m your knight in shining armour apparently. Well, until now. I suppose we’re both in trouble.’
Nick winced. ‘I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I’m in here in the first place, but you didn’t need to be. Are you okay?’ He assessed her anxiously, looking for injuries.
Wren patted herself down. ‘I’m fine. It’s fine. A split-second decision. One I think I’m now regretting. But you… are you alright?’
Without thinking, she reached out and touched his bare chest, which was exposed by the huge tear in his wetsuit. As soon as her fingers made contact with his wet skin, she whipped her hand away and looked down at the water. Her cheeks warmed, despite the chill in the cave.
‘I’m fine,’ he said with a wry smile, rubbing the place she’d just touched. ‘Just a few grazes, a dented ego and a strong suspicion I’m not getting my deposit back on this wetsuit.’
‘No. I don’t think you are. Listen, I’m sorry. You wouldn’t have fallen in at all if you hadn’t been trying to get the paddle back. I’m such an idiot.’
‘Nah, you’re alright,’ he said.
‘I mean, it’s just a paddle. You could have died.’
‘And you. Jumping in to save me. We both could have.’
Wren shivered, and it wasn’t just because the temperature in here was comparatively glacial without the warmth of the sun. She’d felt she had no option at all but to plunge into the water, as if she hadn’t been in control of her own actions.
‘The sirens…’ she said. ‘Maybe those old stories have something to them.’ She immediately felt stupid, but he didn’t laugh.
‘Well, something made me temporarily lose my mind,’ he agreed. But then he shook his head. ‘To be fair, I was probably more scared of us facing Paola with one less paddle than facing the spooky stuff in this cave.’
Wren laughed but still felt uneasy. The sea was churning less furiously now; the tide seemed to be retreating, but the water still looked ominous and grey, and there was a damp chill to the air.
‘I thought this was meant to be the prettiest cave. Blue lights and magic.’
Nick scanned the cave too. ‘Yeah, that’s what she said. But I think it must be only at certain times. When the light shines in just the right way.’
‘So we’ve ended up trapped in here and we don’t even get the full show. Tripadvisor will be hearing of this.’
‘And I’ll be sending a strongly worded email to the tourist board.’
Wren thought back to her near miss on the chairlift and wondered if he wasn’t half right. This holiday had turned into way more of a health hazard than she’d envisioned, even though she’d managed to escape the abseiling and waterskiing that she’d noted – with horror – on Alex’s abandoned itinerary. She imagined him in this situation with her and cringed – she could almost hear him ranting and raging. Nothing like this guy, who was trading silly jokes with her. She wondered if Nick was panicking deep down and was doing this for her benefit, or if he was really just the sort of person not to worry.
‘So, what do we do now?’ she asked, hugging herself and continuing to stare, furrow-browed, at the water.
‘I guess we wait. Unless another hero comes crashing through the tunnel.’
‘The world’s stupidest threesome, that would be.’ She flushed again, realising the obvious innuendo too late.
He paused but didn’t bite. ‘Nope. I think we just have to hang on until the water level drops and we can swim back out. I don’t think it’ll be too long.’ He shivered, and she moved instinctively closer to him. She was just about to ask him again if he was okay when she noticed that the cave had grown quieter. The sound of crashing water had grown faint, and there was a subtle shift in the light.
They watched the water, seeing that the foamy spray that had been spurting into the cave was now growing clearer and less frothy, and after a short while, the mouth to the cave settled into a clear horizon between water and air. Then, bit by bit, the cave began to grow lighter. Sun must have been coming in from somewhere, as the water gradually gathered brightness, glowing as if it was being lit from below. It spread in orbs of turquoise, until the whole surface of the water was phosphorescent with blue light. Wren and Nick looked at each other and gave an incredulous laugh. Without a word they both jumped in.
‘Oh my God, this isn’t real,’ said Wren, beaming like a child, bobbing her hands up and down to make ripples. The water felt warm compared to the chill she’d felt standing dripping wet on that ledge, and she felt the panic of being stuck in here start to lift. Nick looked just as buoyed up and was grinning. He splashed shimmering water at her and she shrieked, splashing back. It was like being in a pool of moonlight.
They trod water, just smiling at each other, and without even trying, Wren somehow drifted closer to Nick. Their feet gently grazed against each other as they cycled underwater, and for some reason, she reached out her hand. He took it, and it seemed quite natural. Maybe she was scared. Maybe he was scared. But holding his hand, while they were trapped in their watery prison, felt safer.
They said nothing; the only noise was the lapping of the water on the walls of the cave, and Wren had time to properly look at Nick for the first time. Now that he was no longer sitting behind her on the kayak, or clinging haphazardly to a cave wall, she could really take him in. His sandy hair now looked dark brown, plastered wet against his head, and his hazel-brown eyes were warm and bright. Nice teeth, not too crooked, not too straight, and a comfortable build that looked like he was no slouch but didn’t live in the gym. Unlike someone she used to know.
He was looking at her too, and maybe it was the strangeness of the situation but she didn’t feel self-conscious. Their eyes met, and she saw a flicker of seriousness through the giddy smile. There was a moment where she felt she should speak, but she didn’t and just broke into a wider grin. With the water glowing around them, and the adrenaline of their near drowning starting to fade, the cave seemed to become another world. One where this stranger felt like someone she’d known for a long time.
‘You two!’ came a shrill voice from the tunnel, and they both jumped as if the water had filled with eels.
A boat sculled underneath the tunnel, which was now passable as the water level had dropped, and at first it appeared empty. Then, as it emerged, Paola and a boatman sat up from where they’d been crouching low to avoid the roof of the tunnel. Paola’s eyes reminded Wren of those seen on the mugshots of serial killers.
‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ she shouted. ‘Are you trying to get me shut down? Or arrested?’
Wren bit her lip, feeling chastened. Nick dropped her hand as if they were standing in the headmistress’s office, and they trod water guiltily.
Paola glared down at them. ‘Well? Get in the damn boat!’
Wren cringed as she swam quickly towards the boat and climbed on with the help of the boatman, who was trying not to laugh. Paola gave him a glacial look.
Nick had scrambled up the other side of the boat, and once they were in, Paola ordered them to lie flat so they could go back through the passage. The oarsman crouched down and steered them through as they stared in cowed silence at the stony roof of the tunnel.
‘Um, Paola,’ said Nick quietly, ‘I’m afraid we let go of our paddles.’
Wren flinched, a bubble of hysteria rising in her chest. Paola, out of her line of vision, made a huffing noise that reminded her of an angry bull. Then, like the explosion of water from the cave mouth, she and Nick dissolved into juvenile giggles, not able to look at each other at all for fear of setting off a fresh bout.
As they lay back on the seat, tears rolling down their cheeks, Wren felt something in her belly that had become unfamiliar lately. It was a sense of being carefree, as buoyant as the boat they were lying on, and having someone beside her who felt the same.
Wren and Nick were dumped unceremoniously on the harbour, where their bags and belongings were waiting for them, having been brought over the island by the tour company. There was no sign of any of their kayak companions, which was both an embarrassment and a relief. She and Nick were the naughty schoolkids kept back after lessons.
Nick went off to return the remains of his ruined wetsuit, and Wren used some nearby loos to get changed. Reunited with her phone and seeing she had half a dozen missed calls, she rang her dad.
Rather than being frantic with worry about where she was, he answered the phone cheerfully. There was a clamour of noise from the other end, people laughing and shouting.
‘Dad, sorry if I’m a bit late. I’m not far from the ferry terminal. Are you already there?’
‘That’s why I was ringing, pet. Lina’s introduced me to some pals of hers from the port, and we’ve had a couple of drinks. They’re boating across to a little shindig in Sorrento tonight, and I thought I might…’
Wren broke into a smile. He sounded giddy and a tiny bit inebriated. She didn’t think she’d ever heard him like this.
‘That’s fine, Dad. Will you ring me when you get back to your room after?’
‘You’re invited to the party, pet. Come along and meet us.’
‘No, no. I’ll be fine; I’d rather head back now. Bit tired.’ The thought of an evening with a bunch of maritime enthusiasts appealed about as much as nights with Alex’s gym bros.
‘Okay, if you’re sure. Text me when you’re back in Sorrento.’
‘Will do. Have a good night.’
‘You an’ all, pet.’ She heard a cheer and what sounded like the beginnings of an Italian sea shanty in the background, and he rang off.
Nick was walking back over the harbour in his normal clothes, hair half dried and sticking up everywhere. Wren felt something strangely akin to waking up after a one-night stand; the cave had felt immediately intimate, but in the light of day, this Nick had become a stranger again. She folded her arms self-consciously.
‘How did it go?’ she asked. ‘I was expecting you to come back as beaten up as the wetsuit.’
He grinned. ‘Paola took it surprisingly well. I think she was just glad to see the back of us.’
‘I don’t blame her,’ said Wren, then an unexpected laugh escaped from her and she shook her head. ‘I can’t actually believe that just happened. I think I must have brought you bad luck.’ She thought back to her disastrous dismount from the chairlift and wondered if she had some kind of klutz-curse on her. She’d been mortifyingly clumsy lately.
He shrugged, an unreadable look on his face. ‘I don’t know. I think I might be the one bringing the bad fortune at the moment.’ His brow furrowed for just a second, then he shook his head. ‘Anyway, speaking of bad luck, I’ve just missed my ferry. And I’ve had a dozen angry texts and voice notes from my brother.’
Wren winced. ‘Nightmare. Um, is he okay?’
‘Yeah, he’ll be fine. He got on the ferry, hoping he’d find me on there, but now he knows I’m alive, he’s calmed down. Nothing an Aperol Spritz won’t sort out, and I’ll just get on the next one. So, have you got someone anxiously waiting for you too?’
‘No, if anything I think my dad’s relieved I’m not cramping his style. I’m going to go back to Sorrento and I’ll see him tomorrow.’
Nick’s eyebrows rose. ‘Listen, I don’t know about you, but… I still feel a bit shaken up after today. Are you sure you’re okay? I can take you back, if you like?’
‘Oh, I’m fine! Honestly, don’t worry. But now that you mention it, what if I need to look out for you? For all I know, you could be about to succumb to PTSD.’
‘Very true. Okay,’ he said slowly, looking at his watch. ‘How about this? We go and grab a bite to eat. I’m starving. And then once we’re both sure the other isn’t going to have a breakdown, we’ll send each other on their way.’
Wren did feel hungry. And it did feel like the polite thing to do – a bit of a debrief on their cave adventure. So she nodded.
They’d only walked a few paces when she thought to check her own watch.
‘Shit,’ she said, her hand on her forehead. ‘Nick, I’m sorry, but my ferry leaves in about ten minutes. And it’s the last one back to Sorrento.’
‘Right,’ he said, eyes flicking to the harbour, where, sure enough, the ferry was waiting. He paused for a moment. ‘Okay, well, tell me to piss off if you want, but I can come over to Sorrento with you, and we can get some food there? Just to make sure you’re alright.’
Wren opened her mouth to say again that she was okay, but then he grinned.
‘I think I meant to say… to make sure we’re both alright.’
Wren smiled. She didn’t tell him to piss off, and ten minutes later, she and Nick watched the coast of Capri fade into the distance from the back of the Sorrento ferry.