"I can't wait."
"Maybe next summer or the one after."
"I'll be sixteen," Carly cried. "I want to learn now. I don't see what the big deal is."
"We don't get everything we want right when we want it."
"You do."
Sara made a disbelieving noise. "That's not true. Don't be in such a hurry, Carly, you have all the time in the world."
"Grandma and grandpa didn't."
"Yes, they did." Sara wiggled her finger in Carly's face, "but they took it one day at a time. Didn't you like snorkeling?"
"Been there, done that." Carly glanced at Conner speaking in low tones to her mother who was smiling back. "You know she's not any different than you."
"What do you mean?"
"You may have a hard time in the water because grandma and grandpa drowned, but at least it's your problem. She's never going to be let me dive because of it."
"That's not true. She lets you swim."
Carly shrugged. "Big deal."
Jack came out of the galley with a bag of crackers. "Don't get excited now," he teased, "they're not cookies from Turtle Soup."
Sara took the bag and opened it. She tested one and gave him a serious look. "I'm not sure what they are."
"Saltines never expire."
Sara choked on the course dry crumbs and fumbled for her water. "You wanna bet?"
He laughed and took a couple, making a pineapple sandwich with them.
"Another reason you shouldn't be allowed in a kitchen."
"Sailors will eat anything."
"I see that." Sara washed her last mouthful down and leaned back in the sun. An alarm sounded from within the cabin and Jack jumped up. When he returned he had a satisfied look on his face.
"Would you like to meet some of my family?"
"Absolutely." Sara looked around. She expected to see a boat weighted down with strangers but all she saw was the smooth plate of sea and the cloudless sky. "You mean later?"
Jack shook his head. "I mean right now." He walked over to the rail and scanned the water. "Conner!" he shouted and Conner waved back. Jack handed Sara a new tank. "Strap this into your BC. I'll double check your work."
Sara widened her eyes in question but he gave nothing away. He moved to strap on his own equipment leaving her curiosity to burn. She zipped her wetsuit up snug around her neck then heaved the fresh tank into place between the Velcro straps of her BC.
Jack came over and helped her latch the vest's buckles then slipped her fins onto her feet. "This way," he said. He led her over to the dive platform, motioned for her to wait, then did a graceful lunge into the water disappearing for several minutes. Finally, he surfaced and motioned for her to join him.
The water fizzed all around her once more. Sara waited for the bubbles to clear. Jack was waiting. He took her gently across the expanse of bare ocean floor until they reached the beginnings of what look like a long meandering reef. They halted and Sara fiddled with her release valve until she acquired a novice level of buoyancy.
Beside her with folded arms, Jack bobbed effortlessly watching the reef. She expected at any moment to see a giant sea monster come swimming out of the depths. Her throat tightened as a dark shadow became visible in the distance, gliding toward them. Panic seized her and she grabbed for his arm.
His touch was calm and reassuring. He motioned for her to breathe and she caught herself, panting much too fast through the regulator. She couldn't tear her eyes away. It passed beneath them, a brown, heart-shaped shell the size of a breakfast table. Sara saw the flash of white flesh around the flippers, the amphibious head, and her fear turned to wonderment.
The sea turtle did a slow turn beneath the boat and came back. He was majestic; a living, breathing remnant of another era in the earth's history. Sara swallowed as he glided past. The turtle's dark eye seemed to look her over, sending a thrill through her body. Flashes of yellow dappled his primitive face. She wanted to reach out and touch him but instinct told her to stay put. He circled them once more then surprisingly rose to the surface.
Jack tugged at her arm and together they rose also, stopping once beneath the turtle's belly for a safety stop that seemed no time at all. They surfaced a few yards away from where Sebastian had taken air. "What do you think of my old friend?"
Following his lead, Sara spit the regulator out and pulled her mask down. She grinned wildly. "You have some very cool friends."
"Guess I'm lucky that way." He stared as if he wanted to say more.
"Sara!" Carly waved madly from the stern and pointed at a camera.
"Luck has nothing to do with it." Ignoring Carly's spasms, Sara looked around to see if she could spy the ancient wonder once more. "So this is you."
"This is what I do."
"It suits you, you know, much better than a desk in Georgia."
Jack smiled. His black hair was slicked back, his skin glowing in the bright sun. "Whatever it takes."
"To what?"
Jack motioned toward where Sebastian disappeared. "When Sebastian is gone, we'll be next."
Feeling much like a cork, Sara tread closer to him to listen.
"Right now we really only track nesting females, but this is where it's at." He looked down into the water at the reef below. "There's a movement to attach satellites to the backs of their shells. They fall off eventually, but I'm not sure how I feel about that." Jack wiped salt stains from his mask.
"If it doesn't do them any harm?"
"It probably doesn't, but there are other avenues. The reefs, the grasses, the algae -- once they're gone, the turtles will go. And so on."
Sara understood. "It's worth fighting for."
"Life always is."
"Is that why you were angry with me, for closing Turtle Soup?"
"If it's what you believe in, then yes."
"I believe in a lot of things, Jack," Sara said carefully, "but I don't believe there's only one way to get there. Just like what you're saying about research. Maybe the difference is I know I don't always have to do it on my own."
He studied her, serious eyes damp at the corners. "I'm working on that."
Sara gave him a soft look, broken by a splash and look of panic on his face. He shot past her in a desperate plunge for the boat. Sara turned in confusion. Conner had jumped onto the dive platform, and Ellen was struggling into her BC.
Sara put her face in the water and came up sputtering. Thick salt choked her lungs and vision. She pulled the mask up over her face and scrambled for the release valve.
Beneath the gentle waves, she saw what her mind had deduced and panic had denied. Carly was a ball of flailing foam on the bottom. Jack had just reached her and was struggling to get his arms around her.
Sara watched in horror until everything she'd learned came back to her in a flash. She tried to descend too fast and pressure in her ears made her squeal in pain. She squeezed her nose and blew, concentrating only on reaching her niece.
Jack had his secondary mouthpiece in Carly's mouth and his arm around her neck. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her chest heaving with choking coughs. Blindly she fought to get away, her legs kicking desperately, but Jack held her firm.
Sara reached them and Jack shook his head to keep her from interfering. He motioned for her to get Carly's BC off. Sara struggled to get at the buckles. She realized Carly had picked up a BC with weight lined in the pockets and added a weight belt, too. In the fast plunge to the bottom, she'd lost the mask and mouthpiece.
Suddenly the girl's eyes bulged open in panic as she coughed into Jack's regulator so hard it popped out. Sara frantically managed to get it back in and she began to breathe spasmodically once more.
Pulling the vest off at Jack's direction, Sara emptied it of all of the weight then wrapped it back around Carly's shoulders. Once it was secure and the tank's pressure gauge checked, Sara gave Jack the okay signal. Carly was breathing, a slow stream of bubbles, in and out, as if in a dream she feared to wake from. Her eyes would ope
n briefly then click shut again against the pressure. Sara moved forward waiting for Jack's instructions. He motioned for her to remove her own mask.
Understanding and with only a moment's hesitation, she shut her eyes and removed the mask. She felt Jack's fingers take it from her hand and she knew it was gone. She forced herself to draw air only through the regulator in her mouth. He would put the mask onto Carly and hope she would be able to clear it; that it would calm her as they made their way slowly to the surface.
Blind, Sara could do nothing, but she felt Jack's hand slip into hers and fasten her fingers around a strap on his BC. Calmly, lost in an empty black world with Jack as her guide she kicked off.
When they surfaced, Jack rolled Carly onto the platform. She still had the mouthpiece gripped firmly between her teeth. Jack slid the mask off her face, mumbling words of comfort. The girl gasped, her back arched and her head fell back. Beside her, Ellen began to cry. Sara put an arm around her sister and pulled her close.
They swaddled Carly in blankets and tried to soothe her as Conner roused the engine. Thanks to Jack's satellite radio, help was waiting for them when they reached the island in record time.
Chapter Twenty
The doctors were unable to separate Ellen from her daughter so Sara waited with Jack and Conner; a somber trio in a waiting room outside the trauma area. Conner had a look of agitation on his face that he swapped out for pacing.
Sara felt exhausted. She let her head fall back on Jack's arm. He was sitting stone-like, staring straight ahead. It was strange, she thought, that she should be the one to offer comfort.
She ran her hand up and down his thigh beside her. "She's going to be okay." Jack didn't blink but his jaw tightened. A dawning realization made Sara sit up. "This wasn't your fault, Jack." He glanced at her then looked away.
"Jack, thank goodness you were there." She leaned into him until he met her eyes. "She could have drowned. You did everything right." Sara took him by the chin. "This was her own doing."
"My boat, my responsibility," he whispered back in a broken voice. Sara wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him to her.
"We all make mistakes. We get scared, we get stupid, we do things we know not to do. It happens, Jack. This was not your fault in any way. Do not beat yourself up."
His eyes glimmered. "It's the what-if's."
"I know exactly what you mean, and just about everyone else does, too. You are not the only person in the world who's lost somebody."
"I'm sorry about your parents."
"I'm not talking about my parents. Guffin told me. It was an accident, what happed to Holly." Jack's jaw tightened again. "I didn't tell you I knew because I didn't want you to think I was patronizing you, but I know what it's like."
"I should have been there for Holly."
"But she didn't want you to be."
"She didn't have to die. I could have saved her. She panicked."
"There doesn't always have to be someone at fault. Life happens." Sara hesitated before adding, "Death happens, too. You're a scientist, you know that. You're not going to be able to save every turtle in the sea."
"I'm going to die trying."
"Then give it your best shot, but at the end of the day remember it's not always going to go according to plan."
Jack hesitated. "Sometimes I forget that."
Sara struggled for more. "It's not always about saving the world. You do what you can but you let go and live a little. You're going to fail sometimes."
He relented with a chuckle. "Like Turtle Soup."
"I didn't fail," Sara declared boldly.
"I know."
She pointed down the hall where Carly had been wheeled away. "Right now that little girl is lying in a hyperbaric chamber thinking about how she almost killed herself and how Jack Brandon saved her life. If you call that failure then you take something away from her." Sara leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Besides, with your reputation, there'll be no living with her after this."
Chapter Twenty-One
The doctors allowed them a visit several hours later. Carly had water in her lungs and had burst her eardrums, but she was conscious and breathing.
Jack watched Conner, laden down with a complex armful of stuffed animals and candy, try to dump it on the foot of her bed. Ellen took the candy and Carly let him tuck a blue dolphin under her arm.
"How are you feeling, kiddo?" Jack asked as they assembled around her.
"Like I'm going to be grounded for life."
Ellen made an affirmative sound. Jack wiggled Carly's toe under the blanket. "Next time let's use the pool to show off."
"Think I better wait awhile before I try that again."
"And with a little less weight," Sara said firmly.
"How much do you weigh anyway, five hundred pounds?" Jack teased.
"She's not as big as she thinks she is."
"I'll remember that," Carly said dryly. "I'll remember you," she said to Jack. Through choked tears she thanked him for saving her life.
Sara leaned down and kissed her. "You get some rest. I'll be back in the morning." Carly nodded. Sara hugged Ellen and offered to get her something to eat but Conner had already made arrangements. "I guess she's taken care of then."
"I got it from here." Conner tried to appear casual but failed miserably. He motioned to Jack. "Maybe you should go feed our newest certified diver and get her into bed. I mean put her to bed." He laughed and threw his hands up.
Jack felt his face flush. "Thought we'd get a bite at Macaw's. You sure you don't want us to bring you anything?" They shook their heads so he quickly took Sara by the hand and led her out of the room before Conner tried to be any more helpful. Outside, they found the moon had risen full and luminous in the tar black sky.
Sara said, "Beautiful night. Nice finish to a not so beautiful afternoon."
Their fingers laced, he stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. "You were right about Carly. She may not be a kid anymore but she still has a lot to learn. We all do."
"Amen to that."
Jack found his feet had stopped. He did get it; the small stuff, the little things, the subtle layers of love and living that truly mattered. He took Sara by the shoulders but she spoke first:
"Don't ever blame yourself for what happened today." Her voice was soft but determined. "And Jack," he knew what was coming, "let go of what happened to Holly. If there was anything you could've done to save her, I know you would've, and deep down, you know it, too."
Jack swallowed. Sara's face swam in the starlight, her eyes sparkling with sincerity.
"I," he began, but words failed. He tried again. "I would have done anything for Holly when she was alive. I would have done anything to save her life. But you need to know, Sara," he took a deep breath, "that I'd do anything for you. Just as much and more. It's the losing that scares me. It's the fear of what almost happened today that holds me back."
"I'm not going anywhere, Jack Brandon, and until I do, I intend to enjoy myself. And I'd like to start with you."
They examined one another and in her eyes Jack saw what he longed for. He wanted to jump up and down, or swing her around, but he couldn't tear himself away from her smile. She turned up her face and their lips met in a deep slow song. He heard it wash over the island from the shore below. He heard it brush through the leafy hills and stir the dust around their feet. He heard it in his soul and believed with all of his heart, that she could hear it, too.
Sara wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her fingers kneading into his back. The taste and feel of her sent a flurry of words through his mind. Good thoughts, pretty pictures, wonderful ideas. He promised himself he'd write them down for her someday.
###
THE END
Bonus Recipe
Turtle Soup's Cherry Whip
1 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple
1 can of cherry pie filling
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 large 16-
ounce container of whipped topping
Drain the pineapple. In a large bowl, mix the pineapple, cherry pie filling, and sweetened condensed milk. Gently stir in the whipped topping until blended and smooth. Cover. Chill in refrigerator at least 3 hours or overnight before serving.
About the Author
Danielle Thorne writes from south of Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of four and five star sweet romantic adventure books, both historical and contemporary. Other work has appeared with Espresso Fiction, Every Day Fiction, Arts and Prose Magazine, Mississippi Crow, The Nantahala Review, StorySouth, Bookideas, The Mid-West Review and much more. Danielle is a former editor for Solstice and Desert Breeze Publishing. Her popular blog, The Balanced Writer, focuses on life and the pursuit of peace and happiness. Currently, she is a freelance copywriter in-between working on her next book and pursuing a second degree. Danielle has two new romances due out Fall of 2014.
Visit Danielle at www.daniellethorne.com
To learn more about sea turtle research and conservation, visit The Caribbean Conservation Corporation at: http://www.cccturtle.org/
The Georgia Aquarium can be reached at: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/
Swim with sea turtles at the real Turtle Cove: http://www.doubloon.com/Doubloon.htm
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