3 The Encounter with the Shark
In the morning, I was the first to wake up; taking advantage of the fact that you were still sleeping peacefully, I rested my head on your heart, gazing at you in rapture.
Unable to stay still, I began tracing your outline with a finger, making you stir in your sleep.
I waited for your breathing to return to normal before starting to tease you again; I couldn’t bear the thought that you weren’t aware I was beside you.
I had to wait patiently for almost an hour before I could admire a pair of eyes that gazed at me happily. “Love,” you said to me in a particularly warm and sensual voice.
I hurried to reply: “My dear kitty, forgive me, but first thing in the morning I’m a sloth, and my brain doesn’t start kicking in until around eleven.”
“Now that’s great news,” you whispered, hugging me and skillfully sliding me underneath you.
Panic got the better of me, and by using the weapon of tickling, I managed to make you laugh and let go.
Escaping a very sweet end, I flew into the bathroom, where I stayed for over ten minutes. When I returned to the bedroom, I noticed that your nostrils were brazenly sniffing at me, and, overcome by an unjustified terror, I suggested you take a shower with the papaya body wash that I’d tried myself.
Hoping I’d convinced you, I tried not to look you in the eye so I wouldn’t succumb to your cocky demeanor.
As you closed the door behind you, I added, “Make sure the water’s cold!” smiling to myself.
I realized that there was really nothing to smile about; I, too, had had to take an ice-cold shower, but I would never have revealed that detail to you, not even under torture.
While waiting for you to get ready, I put on my favorite swimsuit, a gift from my best friend when she returned from Brazil.
I paired it with a sarong embellished with tiny seashells.
Feeling hot because of my extreme sensitivity to the heat, I pulled my still-wet hair up and went outside to breathe in the Maldivian air.
I’d expected a rather quiet atmosphere, but I had to change my mind.
In fact, the resort was bustling with activity; the maintenance staff were raking up the leaves that had fallen overnight, and the housekeeping staff were busy making up the rooms.
As soon as I made eye contact with the staff, they greeted me like a friendly neighbor, and I happily returned their greetings, feeling just as Maldivian as they were.
I was so immersed in that dreamlike atmosphere that I didn’t even notice you’d finally made your dramatic entrance at the door.
My mood didn’t change as I watched you in awe, wearing long Hawaiian-style shorts, a pink T-shirt, the ever-present sunglasses, and a towel casually draped over one shoulder.
As I watched you, I murmured to myself how cool you looked; I was getting an uncontrollable urge to go back to the room with you. Of course, I didn’t say anything to you and hoped my eyes wouldn’t speak out of turn for me.
We made our way to the restaurant on stilts for breakfast. I opted for a tropical fruit smoothie, fresh-baked bread, butter, and papaya jam, while you settled for a coffee and a whole-grain honey croissant.
It was a gorgeous day, and the sun, already high over the lagoon, invited the soul to laze about. Following the example of some of the resort’s guests, we wrote our names on a chalkboard to reserve the noon barbecue on Sunrise Island.
The time had come to take the morning in stride and head to the boat storage area to choose a two-seater canoe.
We pushed the boat into the water, and I immediately took the front seat with an authoritative and wild air.
We began paddling vigorously, plunging the paddles into the water in perfect sync, and within minutes we reached Sunrise Island.
I scrambled out of the canoe, desperate to feel the ground beneath my feet.
Although the sand was cool, it felt like it was burning because I was so eager to reach the tip of the spit, a long strip of white sand that stretched out into the sea.
I looked like a butterfly gone mad as I laboriously pulled you by the hand, and you let me do it, believing there must be a good reason for my peculiar behavior.
When I reached two meters from the tip, I stopped, turned toward you, and begged you to wait right there.
After giving you a quick kiss, I turned toward the sea and walked toward the end of the beach, my gaze lost on the horizon.
When I reached the spot I’d set out for, I knelt down, sitting on my heels, scooped up some water, and splashed it on my face, remaining in perfect silence as I gazed out at the sea.
My mind began to speak to the part of my soul that I had left there the last time I’d been there: “My soul, I’ve come back to reclaim you, and this time you can trust me; look for yourself behind me.”
A painful twinge in my heart made me realize that my soul had been restored.
I felt joy blossoming within me; finally, I knew I could start living again without fear.
I turned around, and you were still where I’d left you, waiting patiently.
I felt serene and confident; I reached you, and we dove in together, sending up a cloud of salty droplets.
Unfortunately, the warm, comforting embrace of the sea couldn’t quite soothe me.
Having had to leave you for a few minutes to reconnect with part of my soul had left me feeling a little sad.
Thinking that we’d both need a strong rush of adrenaline, I decided to take you to some deep pools scattered throughout the lagoon.
The expanse of the sea, though clear, was colorless, and those small dark-blue nooks that broke up its uniformity added a pleasant, colorful interlude to the scene.
In the first pool, we spotted a scorpionfish and a lobster, while the second was home to a grass-green-eyed cuttlefish and a giant moray eel. You seemed to enjoy encountering the marine life and kept pointing out how unafraid the animals were.
However, I didn’t feel at ease approaching the third pool, so I checked just to be safe how far we were from the shore, calculating how quickly we could reach it in case of danger.
Summoning my courage, I placed a finger on your lips to signal you to be quiet and pulled you by the hand toward the opening of the largest chasm.
We looked inside while your hand squeezed mine a little too tightly.
I turned to you, worried, but your gaze was as if hypnotized by something coming from the depths of the dark water.
I, too, saw a pair of glassy eyes staring at us; without losing my composure, I prepared to check the fish’s dorsal fin, which, fortunately, was limp.
We were face-to-face with a nurse shark at least two meters long that was terrifying, even though it was potentially harmless.
I had frozen at the sight of the unexpected guest and couldn’t move a muscle.
From a distance, I could hear the echo of your words, spoken in a hushed tone as you tried to tug at me to get me to move.
I let myself be dragged away like a cetacean tired of struggling against a hook lodged in its palate, aware of your predictable protests once we reached the shore.
We managed to emerge from the water, quite happy to still be alive, though worried and shaken for conflicting reasons.
You were still feeling the fear of having come face to face with a shark; I feared your reproaches for the danger I’d put us both in. I knew I’d gone too far, driven by the desire to show you my world, but I hadn’t assessed the danger of the situation beforehand.
I left you on the beach to make my way to a cluster of palm trees, leaned against one of them to hide from your view, and began to cry like a little girl.
You let me cry it out for a good quarter of an hour; evidently, that was the punishment you had in store for me.
The situation seemed to take a turn for the worse, however, when alarming sobs rose from my childish hiding place and you started to come toward me.
“Turn around and look at me,” you said in the most convincing tone possible.
My reaction was instantaneous, and I plunged back into the sea, diving into its depths.
I felt as if I’d lost your trust… and I just wanted to die.
I stayed underwater for over a minute in a desperate attempt to defy life.
Your hand firmly began to pull me up by the waistband of my swimsuit.
Overwhelmed by my emotions, I convinced myself to resurface in front of you.
As I gazed deeply into your eyes, the words welled up spontaneously from my heart: “You’re so beautiful, and I love you immensely. Please never leave me, because I would die without you.”
I waited anxiously for your reply, which never came; your lips spoke in their own way without uttering a single human sound, and never have words been sweeter.
I kept my eyes open so as not to miss even a single frame of the splendid dream I was experiencing with you.
At that moment, you could have asked me anything.
It seemed as though you were about to do so, as if you had sensed my thoughts.
The arrival of the restaurant’s speedboats saved me at the last minute.
The resort staff, laden with crates containing the catch from the night’s fishing trips, set about lighting the barbecue, and shortly afterward, an inviting aroma wafted from the embers.
The tension between us seemed like nothing more than a bad memory.
While waiting for lunch, we walked around the little island until we reached the ford we would have to cross later to reach the second deserted island.
A low murmur not far away prompted us to quicken our pace, and shortly afterward we settled down at a wooden table on which large, steaming fish had been laid out.
We’d never seen them up close like this—they weren’t found in our seas—and at first we were hesitant about trying them, but our hesitation didn’t last long.
After tasting a few bites, we had to admit they were turning out to be quite tasty, every bit as good as our sea bass.
Once the meal was over, the table was quickly cleared, the barbecue was extinguished, and the motorboats set off back toward the main island.
Left on our own, we climbed back into the canoe to head toward our second destination.