Chapter 8
The affairs of government and nations had never concerned Allegra before.
Sequestered on their beautiful island, focused on the sea and what the land yielded, such things had seemed remote and irrelevant.
Now, whenever she could, Allegra visited the postal clerk near the quay.
The office there had a radio, and if anything important happened, they were the first to hear it.
She didn’t understand much of it—the talk of socialism, labor strikes, and power struggles danced like drunken sailors in her head.
All through the long weeks of that first winter, she received only two letters from Johann.
I miss you, he wrote. How is the boat? No real news about where they were or if he was hungry or cold.
Artillery training and weeks of waiting, he said.
Weeks I could have spent bringing in catches to tide you over.
The amaretti cookies are long gone. Allegra read them over and over, the folds so deep the thin paper almost fell to pieces.
By spring, the news on the radio seemed charged with tension.
It was official: Italy had entered a large-scale war, in league with Britain and France, against Austria-Hungary.
Who knew how long this whole business would drag on?
How many more battles might Johann have to face before it was over?
It had been months since she’d had a word from him.
She posted letters, but when or if they ever reached him, she couldn’t know.
In May, the weavers went back to swimming regularly, but Allegra’s nerves were so taut she nearly cut herself with the ivory-handled knife her mother had given her when she’d taken the water oath.
When they swam, Lora managed to position herself nearby to keep an eye on her, Allegra knew.
She remembered her prayer the last time she’d seen her husband: her end of the bargain was to be an excellent caretaker and weaver, and she tried to slow her breathing and be present in the world that usually brought her such peace and comfort.
She was still responsible for Susana Bernetti, the novice young diver.
Allegra wished she could simply focus on her own tasks, which seemed hard enough these days, instead of having to check and monitor Susana.
It wasn’t the girl’s fault, obviously. She was eager to learn and wanted to please.
Allegra knew she could do nothing for Johann, but she couldn’t shake the worry that tugged at her thoughts and jangled her nerves.
One morning in late May, Susana surfaced near her, and they placed the tangled threads they’d cut into a glass jar in the floating basket.
“There’s an eel under the reef shelf right under us,” Susana told her as she treaded water, her eyelashes dripping. “I’m going to see if I can spear it on this next dive.”
Allegra nodded. “If you don’t get it on the first try, it’s not going to give you a second chance. You need to be quick.”
Susana breathed deeply, readying herself for the dive.
“Just getting a good breath. Come with me. I’ll show you where I saw it.
” She dove in a quick motion, and Allegra followed her down to the reef.
The others swam and dove in twos and threes some distance away.
She watched them expertly clipping and stashing the byssus threads, signaling easily to one another in their underwater language.
A sudden motion next to her drew her attention.
The spear had hit its mark, and Susana drew the eel out of its hole, its black body writhing in protest. She grinned and maneuvered the creature away from her, its mouthful of teeth out of range.
Allegra pointed up, and they turned to ascend side by side, but when Allegra broke through the surface, Susana wasn’t nearby.
She waited a moment—the girl was a slower swimmer—but still nothing.
Allegra dove back under and quickly spotted the thrashing eel, still skewered on the spear, floating toward the sandy bottom.
Susana sank in the crystal water, too, limp and motionless.
Allegra shot toward the girl and reached her in seconds.
She encircled her chest from behind and kicked toward the surface, dragging her upward.
Lora appeared suddenly beside her, and with both of them kicking, they surfaced quickly.
“Sirvone!” they yelled. “Sirvone!”
At the call for help, the atmosphere in the water immediately changed.
The others swam over as they surfaced, drawn by the commotion and noise.
Using their floating baskets as a raft, they hoisted Susana out of the water as they made for the shore.
Allegra tried not to panic at the sight of the girl’s pale face, dark hair plastered to her skin, and her lips, a disturbing shade of purply blue.
As soon as they had footing, they dragged her to the beach.
Lora turned her on her side, and Allegra knelt in the sand, pounding Susana’s back and slapping her face.
“Susana!” she yelled. “Wake up, wake up!” In a flash, she was back in the market with Ella in her arms. Every muscle in her body thrummed with adrenaline.
As others reached the shore, they crowded around, rubbing her feet, legs, and arms, sisters giving what they could to one of their own.
Allegra couldn’t shake the image of Susana’s triumphant face as she held the squirming eel, lost now to the ocean’s current.
What had happened? What had she let happen?
She knew everyone else must be asking the same question, but she had no answer.
A faint moan escaped Susana’s sandy lips, and her eyelids fluttered.
Allegra fell back onto the sand, finally able to draw a breath of relief as the girl coughed, seawater spilling from her mouth and nose.
Allegra found she was crying, holding a sandy hand to her own mouth to stifle the sobs.
She heard a shout and looked up to see Susana’s mother flying down the beach, stumbling through the soft sand with her long skirt.
Someone must have run to their home. Liza had stayed with the family’s new baby that morning.
Allegra crawled a few feet away to give Liza and Susana space.
The girl sat up, coughing and disoriented.
Liza knelt to hold her daughter, her face drained of color, as if she’d been the one floating beneath the waves.
Allegra watched, trying to catch her own ragged breath, as Liza shook Susana, repeatedly touching her face, her hair, as if to reassure herself Susana was indeed safe, that the morning hadn’t ended in tragedy after all.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I speared an eel,” Susana said, and she searched the sand around her.
“You dropped it,” Allegra said. “I couldn’t—”
“It was just an eel,” Lora said. “Never mind it.” Her sister had moved to sit beside her and circled Allegra with her arms. Allegra was grateful. She suddenly felt cold and had begun to shiver, the adrenaline leaving her body in a rush.
“I don’t remember,” Susana said. “We’d been diving for the byssus, and I came up to get some extra breaths to make sure I could stay down long enough for the eel. I had it.” Confusion furrowed her brow, and she shrugged. “Then, things went dark, and I don’t remember.”
“You took extra breaths?” Allegra asked.
“Yes. You were there. You saw me.”
Allegra had been there, but she’d been distracted, diving from memory rather than being actively present.
She’d been thinking of Johann and his last letter, wondering where he might be or if he knew how much she thought about him.
She’d missed the signs. She witnessed the women exchanging glances.
They were thinking the same thing, Allegra knew.
Liza helped Susana to stand. Her legs were shaky, but by some miracle of the sea, she seemed to have recovered. Some of the other women had gone back out to the byssus cove to retrieve the anchored baskets that had been left floating. There would be no more diving today.
As they walked home, dispersing in small groups, the normally boisterous and merry chatter was muted.
Lora helped Allegra dress, and together they lugged their baskets toward their childhood home.
Allegra had taken to spending much of her time there since Johann had been away. About halfway there, she finally spoke.
“She could have—”
“Don’t.” Lora cut her off. “She didn’t. You saved her.”
“I almost lost her,” Allegra snapped. “She was my responsibility, my partner. If I’d been paying attention as I should’ve, I would’ve seen her overbreathing and stopped the dive.”
“She’s old enough to know better. Shallow water blackouts are a danger we all learn about.” She shook her head. “She’s naive and eager. She was excited about the eel and trying to prove she could get it. You should have been in a larger group with some backups. None of us was thinking.”
“Thinking I’d be so negligent, you mean?”
“We all know you haven’t been at your best, Allegra—and for good reason.”
“Susana shouldn’t have been a consequence of that.”
“Perhaps not, but it could have happened to anyone. No one drowned today.”
Allegra shrugged off her sister’s arm and walked the rest of the way in silence, breathing quickly to keep her tears at bay.
What had happened was just one more thing on the long list of sorrows she carried, and this one had been her own fault.
She couldn’t have forgiven herself if Susana had drowned.
She could have been the cause of another mother’s deepest grief, something she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy.
Allegra had to get her focus back. Somewhere in the past few years, her joy and purpose had been scattered like broken shells left at low tide.
All she could think of was what she’d lost—or almost lost. It clouded her heart like a gathering storm.