Chapter Twenty Tula
Chapter Twenty
Tula
I clung to the edge of the boat and watched the waters churn around me.
Below the surface, I saw the faint outline of the divers before they vanished completely into the dark.
When Mom and I had dived in the Pacific and the Caribbean, the waters were crystal clear and the visibility sharp.
But in the Atlantic, visibility was lower, and a few feet below the surface, a person simply vanished.
The last time I’d seen Mom, we were right here, below the surface at the Oceanus site. I’d been nervous those last few minutes. There was no Nathan, and Mom was über focused on the ship’s hull. She’d looked so calm as she studied the jagged torn metal where the torpedo had ripped into the hull.
I checked my dive computer, watching my oxygen dip. Mom burned through oxygen faster than me, so her gauge had to be much lower. Our window to rise was closing fast. Mom had insisted this would be a quick trip.
I tapped Mom on the shoulder, and she looked at me with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity. She’d told me time and again on the surface that she never wanted me entering any wreck. And yet here she was, ready to vanish into the twisted gash.
I held up my dive watch, indicating my air was running low. She held up five fingers, a sign she was five minutes behind me. I didn’t want to leave her but deferred to her judgment. And so, I swam to the choppy surface.
The waves were hitting the side of the rocking boat hard.
A wave knocked me off the ladder, forcing me to regrip the cool metal and pull myself up.
It took all my strength to pull myself onto the boat.
When I dropped my tanks, I stumbled to the side of the boat and searched for signs of Mom.
I checked my watch. She had two more minutes. I strapped on my life vest.
Two minutes turned to five and then to ten. Mom would be furious if I called in a Mayday, but I didn’t care. I reached for the radio.
“This is Tula Cassidy. I’m on the boat Voyager, and I’m almost three miles due east of Southern Shores above the Oceanus wreck.”
“Voyager, confirm your location.”
I repeated my location.
“Ten-four. A helicopter has been dispatched.”
The coast guard was in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, which was at least an hour drive. By helicopter, I estimated the trip would take twenty minutes.
I ran on the rolling deck and clung to the side. I really expected to see Mom surfacing and pulling herself back onto the boat. She always cut it close, but she didn’t know the weather had turned. Getting to shore before the storm would be tight, but we’d make it.
Fat raindrops fell. At first the drips were slow and steady, but they quickly picked up their pace. Mother Nature had turned on the tap and opened the sky.
Seven years later, anxiety still scratched my insides as I watched the calm waters. The weather bureau wasn’t predicting rain. But Mother Nature laughed when humans tried to predict her moods.
I do what I want, the waters whispered.
Now waves rolled against the side of the Intrepid. With each passing second, old fears grew stronger. The ocean had large monster muscles and was always ready to flex them. A wave crashed hard against the side of the boat, and I stumbled.
I blinked and shook off the memory.
A head bobbed to the surface. Tony swam toward the boat’s dive platform. He grabbed the metal, and I could see the stress tightening his face.
I checked my watch. He’d been under the water twenty minutes. I leaned down and unhooked his harness, and the tanks slid off. I dragged them onto the dive platform. Lighter, Tony climbed onto the boat.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
He ripped off his mask and wiped the water from his face. “Yeah, fine.”
I’d seen fear in other divers’ faces before. No one was immune from close calls. “You don’t look fine.”
He drew in a breath, filling his lungs with air. “I’m not usually so claustrophobic.”
“It’s okay. Each dive is different. Did you tell Nathan you were coming up?”
“No. I didn’t think to find him.”
He’d panicked. I looked out over the smooth waters, expecting Nathan to appear any moment. “How deep did you dive?”
“One hundred and fifty feet.”
“Did you take safety stops on the way up?”
“One.”
He’d risen too quickly. He should have ascended at thirty feet per minute. “Have a seat. Let me get you a water.”
“I’m fine.”
“If you were fine, you’d be below the surface.” I fished a water bottle from the cooler and shoved it at him. “Sit and drink the water.”
He sat and with a trembling hand raised the bottle to his mouth.
“It’s happened to me,” I said. “The ocean is powerful, and we just don’t realize it until we’re under it.”
“It wasn’t the water,” he insisted. “I’ve dived a hundred times before.”
“What happened? Did something spook you?”
“The wreck.”
“Have you dived wrecks before?”
He sniffed and stared out over the water as if he expected to see something. “In the Caribbean. But it was a small boat.”
“The waters are darker here, and this wreck is huge.”
He looked at me as if he were really seeing me for the first time since he’d returned to the boat. “You’ve seen it?”
“Yeah, once. My mom was kind of an expert on the Oceanus.” I left out the end of Mom’s story.
Dark lashes shadowed his eyes. He was silent for a moment, and then: “Has anyone ever said the Oceanus is haunted?” He looked embarrassed to ask the question. I supposed because it was just the two of us, he thought he could.
My first thought was Mom, not the other lost souls. Was Mom still lingering around the Oceanus? You still at that wreck, Mom?
He gulped down more water. “When’s the last time you were there?”
“Seven years.”
Another head popped to the surface. “Hey!”
I rushed to the side of the boat. It was Nathan, and he looked pissed. He’d shot that look at me before when a diver broke ranks.
Small waves lapped and struck the side of the boat. “Tony is fine. He’s here with me.”
He gave me a thumbs-up, and without a word, he put his regulator back into his mouth and dove under the surface.
“Next time, let your dive instructor know you’re leaving. Kind of freaks them out when you don’t,” I said.
“Yeah. I should’ve told him. But I had kind of a panic attack.”
“It happens.”
“What do you know about the wreck?” Tony asked.
More than I wanted to. “Too much.”
“Can you give me the one-minute pitch?”
I filled him in on the ship’s voyage from Cape Town to Port of Spain and then to right here, where she’d sunk.
“How many people died here?” he asked.
“Nineteen when the ship was torpedoed,” I said. Twenty total souls lost if you counted Mom.
“That’s a lot of bodies.”
“That’s why no one goes into the wreck. It’s a final resting place.”
He took another swig of water. “I had no intention of going inside. Well, I did, but I never made it that far. I wasn’t even close when I saw it.”
The sun winked on the ocean’s smooth waters. “Saw what?”
“It could have been a fish. I don’t know. But it was something large and floating above the wreck. It looked like it was coming toward me.”
Lots of schools of random fish, sharks, and skates were in these waters. “Can you describe it better?”
“I’m not sure. Big, white, floaty. Like a ghost.”
“Or like a fish?”
“I don’t think so. Reminded me of a cloud.”
Again, I thought of Mom’s eternal soul and the nineteen souls guarding the wreck.
“I know, it sounds crazy,” Tony said. “Do you believe me?”
“I believe there are all kinds of things under the water we can’t explain. But you’re here. And you’re safe. Take the win.”
“Did you see anything when you dove the wreck?”
“No. I was running out of air. And I was worried about getting back to the boat. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t see something.”
He shook his head. “You think I’m nuts.”
“Not at all. Just upset. You saw something that spooked you. So, chill. Breathe deep. The others will be back up soon.”
He crushed the plastic water bottle in his fist. “Don’t tell them, okay? I’ll look like a pussy.”
“I won’t say a word.”
I moved back to the edge of the boat and checked my watch. I sat on the side, watching the ocean.
My watch buzzed, and I checked the time. Nathan and the others had been down for forty minutes now. The divers were scheduled to surface in twenty minutes.
Minutes later, another diver cracked the surface. It was Jeff, the contractor from Virginia Beach. He swam toward the dive platform and hoisted himself up easily. He shrugged off his tanks, and I lifted them onto the boat. He removed his mask and climbed aboard.
I handed him a water bottle. “How did it go?”
He twisted off the top. “It was amazing. Hell of a sight.”
“What part of the ship did you explore?” Tony asked.
“I started at the bow and swam toward the intact midsection. I was interested in seeing the .50 caliber guns on the deck. They must’ve delivered a hell of a punch back in the day.”
“They did,” I said.
“They were all angled upward.”
It would take centuries for the ocean to totally reclaim the vessel, but eventually, centuries would pass, and she would. “She’s trying to hold strong.”
“The hull was covered in barnacles, corals, and sponges, seven years ago like it is now. Pretty amazing.”
“Yeah, Mother Nature puts those wrecks to good use. It’s home now to tons of fish, eels, and crabs.”
Jeff took a long swig. “I saw glass bottles, plates, and military supplies. They were scattered on the ocean floor.”
“You didn’t take anything, did you?” I asked.
“No.”
“Good. Bad karma, and the wreck is within three miles of the coast, so salvage is illegal.”
“I’m more worried about karma than the laws,” Jeff said.
I was satisfied that he hadn’t swiped any trinkets, and I decided not to argue.
Another diver popped to the surface. It was Martha, the schoolteacher. I helped her onto the platform.
“Fantastic,” Martha said.
“Glad you enjoyed it.” I set her tanks aside and handed her a bottle. Then Rick appeared and climbed aboard.