Wet: Part 1 (10 page)

“What makes you think there’s something bothering me?”

“Because you’re even freakin’ grumpier than your
usual
meanie-head self.”

“Shoot, darn, gosh, crap, freakin’, and now ‘meanie-head?” Fuck. Did you get your potty mouth in the back alleys of Mayberry?”

“No,” she yelled. She didn’t mean to. She took a breath and tried not to smile. “. . . Sesame Street.”

He actually chuckled, kind of. He closed his eyes and she watched as he played with his mouth, alternating between biting his lips and pursing them. He seemed calmer when he opened them again. “So what’d you do last night?”

“Went to the concert.”

“After!”

“Um . . . I got a free drum lesson from a famous, world-class drummer.”

“I saw. Then what did you do?”

“Why do you care?”

Paul shrugged, casually. “Just find it curious that Miss Stick-Up-Her-Ass is too good for the locals, but a famous, world-class drummer comes to town . . .”

She hung her head, not because of what Paul said but because of what really happened the night before. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Did he hurt you?” Paul suddenly sounded concerned.

“No.” She scowled.
Not physically, anyway,
she thought.

Paul exhaled and looked out the window. Rhees watched as he ran his lips through his trademark motions, a slow lick of his lips, bite the lower lip, pucker, cheek twitch, pucker again . . . She only now realized it was a nervous habit. It shocked her a little to think he ever got nervous.

“Is that it then? You just wanted to know last night’s agenda?” He was so confusing.

He slowly tilted his head toward her. His eyes rolled to meet hers. He still had a scowl on his face.

“Paul. This is really getting old. I’ll be going home soon, and you still haven’t scheduled me to get my open water dives.
Maybe
. . . you could prorate my tuition and let me go to Island Divers to finish while I still have time. We could be out of each other’s hair.”

“No,” he said, clipped and angry again. “I don’t prorate anything, and I don’t give fucking refunds just because a fucking student gets all wishy-washy and can’t just be honest about what really the fuck is going on.”

They didn’t see Claire walk in.

“Would you really let me go home without my certification, even though I paid you every penny I have in the world to get it?” The last thing she wanted to do was cry in front of him, but tears welled in her eyes.

“No, Rhees. He won’t do that,” Claire yelled. “He’s going to get you on the bloody boat before it’s too late. If he doesn’t, I will take you out and certify you myself. We’ll do it from the shore if we have to.”

Paul whipped around and glared at Claire, but she just glared right back and didn’t flinch. 

Rhees slipped out through the tunnel and leaned against the wall in the compressor room. She slid down to the floor and cried. She was done. She’d used up all her reserve courage, and now she just wanted to run. She would run, if her muscles weren’t trembling so badly.

She could still hear the shouting match between Paul and Claire, though she wished she couldn’t. She put her hands over her ears as the tears continued to stream down her face.

“Why do you have it in for her so bad?” Claire screamed. “She hasn’t done anything wrong! She’s a good person and you know it.”

“Remind me why I keep your sorry ass around?” Paul boomed.

“Because, I’m the only one who’s smart enough to hate you as much as you hate yourself!” Claire retaliated. Finally, she said it.

Paul smirked. He closed his eyes, and did the mouth twitchy thing before walking out and headed to the only bar open that early in the day.

It took Claire a minute to find Rhees. She sat down next to her and leaned her head against Rhees’ and they sat together in silence for a few minutes.

“I don’t know what’s bloody wrong with that man, but I’m going to find a way to fix this, okay? I’ll talk to Dobbs. We’ll find a way around Paul.”

“No, Claire. Please don’t. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ll be gone before you know it, but you’re stuck with him. Once I’m gone, none of this will matter anymore.”

“But your goal.”

“It’s okay. It just doesn’t seem to matter so much anymore. And technically, I
did
learn
how
to dive, it’s just not official, but that’s okay. I’m good.”

oOo

Paul returned about three thirty that afternoon. He’d worked hard for years to build up such a high tolerance for alcohol that he didn’t stagger, but everyone smelled it on him, and his eyes had that bloodshot, glazed-over look he got when his blood-alcohol level reached about eighty proof. To everyone’s obvious relief, his mood had improved immensely.

He put the next day’s schedule on the board and walked around to the deck. He glanced about as if looking for someone. He found Krista. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and started kissing her neck, whispering something into her ear. She giggled and didn’t mind at all.

When Paul pulled Krista toward the bathroom, the other girls snickered amongst themselves while shooting gossipy glances at Rhees because of their comments earlier that day. She decided to believe they were just thanking her for riling Paul for Krista.

“You’re welcome,” Rhees mouthed. She shook her head in disgust thinking she wouldn’t miss having to watch him do that anymore when she left. She decided to go hang out in the office for a while.

oOo

By the time Paul and Krista came out, most of the students had left. Everyone knew the schedule for the next day, so there was no longer any reason to hang around. Rhees walked to the office to retrieve her backpack. She reached inside, pulled out her T-shirt, and slipped it on over her swimming suit. She reached back into the pack to find her shorts. She pulled them on, buttoned them up, and stuck her hands in the pockets to smooth them out.

Something bulged inside one of the pockets and she pulled it out to see what it was. She stood, staring at a small wad of money. She tried to remember the last time she’d worn those shorts, what she’d done that would have made her stick change in the pocket and forget about it. She’d done it before and counted her blessings it happened again.

The timing truly was a blessing—a miracle, actually. Now she had a little extra to get by on. She’d become dangerously short on cash and not only had she been living on one baleada and a banana the last two days, she planned to do so until she climbed onto the plane to head home. After that, she had four hundred and sixty dollars sitting in her bank account. She knew it wasn’t enough to get her by until she found a job, a place to live—but worrying about it wasn’t going to change anything. She’d decided not to think about it until she had to.

Paul entered the office. “I need you to stay and help with the night dive, at least to get us off—” He stopped mid-sentence and tensed when he saw Rhees staring at a handful of cash with a confused look on her face. He watched her shrug and stick the money into her backpack. She didn’t seem too suspicious and he relaxed.

“You don’t have to wait for us to return.” The alcohol had already all but worn off.

“I see you’re back to your sober, ornery self.”

He gave her a look but ignored her comment.

She sighed. “Why me? After the day I’ve—
we’ve
had?”

“I need you because you’re the hardest worker I have.” He walked through the tunnel to the compressor room to grab some tanks. She followed him, reluctantly and with little enthusiasm.

“You’re slipping. I think you may have just complimented me.”

“Don’t get used to it.” He smirked because she couldn’t see him do it.

oOo

Paul planned to sit the dive out and just help on the boat. Dobbs was the dive master that night, and Claire planned to go along. Being stuck in the office all day didn’t give her much opportunity to dive, so she almost always tagged along on the night dives.

When the Swenson family showed up, everyone could see the tension between them.

“We agreed to take turns. Heather, you’re sitting this one out,” Mr. Swenson said to his teenage daughter.

“No, Dad. I never agreed. You just
decreed
we’d take turns. I don’t see why I should have to sit out to babysit just because you decided to knock up your mistress, break up our family, and ruin our lives!”

“It’s all right, Bill. I’ll stay with the kids,” Mrs. Swenson said, trying to restore the peace.

“Holly, I’m not giving in on this. If we give in every time these kids throw a tantrum, we’ll never—”

“Bill, it isn’t worth the fight.”

The dive shop crew squirmed, embarrassed to be forced to listen to the family squabble.

“I could watch the kids,” Rhees volunteered. “Mrs. Swenson, you go dive. I promise we’ll stay at the shop and just play. The kids and I will have a great time.”

Everyone looked at Rhees like she’d just offered herself up to be thrown into a volcano as the sacrificial virgin. No one understood why that thought made her want to laugh.

“That is, if it’s okay with you?” She looked at Paul, but Mr. Swenson jumped on the offer.

“That would be wonderful, Miss . . .”

“Williams,” she said.

Randy Williams, the boat captain, stowed his things and ran through his checks when he heard Rhees say her last name. “I never knew your name was Williams. We mus’ be cousins.”

Randy was black and from as far away from Rhees’ hometown as one could get. Rhees couldn’t help her laughter. “That would be nice. I didn’t think I had any family left.”

“Of course we are. You have ta come ta the Williams party this Sunday. I’ll introduce you ta the ress of the family.”

“Um . . . okay.” She smiled but then Randy hopped off the boat and gave her a big bear hug. She tensed up at the contact, but when she saw the look on Paul’s face, she forced herself to relax and hug Randy back. She didn’t need anyone getting suspicious about her problem and asking unwanted questions.

“Family—they got ta stick together.” Randy’s accent was typical for born and bred islanders, white or black. Everyone born on the island attended the same schools and received an adequate education, but a century of isolation before the island was finally discovered by the diving community had left the language with a distinctive vernacular that Rhees had only recently started to understand.

Paul jumped in, hoping to get the dive moving along. “So, is everyone okay with Princess Danarya watching the kids?” Everyone seemed pleased with the idea, a little confused with the title he’d just called her, but no one said anything about it. “Then what are we standing around for? Let’s get wet.”

They loaded the boat and pulled away. Rhees held the two little kids at her side and the three of them waved as the divers took off, out to sea. Paul stood at the rear of the boat and watched her.

“Why did she do that?” Paul asked.

“Watch the kids?” Claire busied herself setting up gear nearby. “Because she’s barmy, that’s why. I’d rather cut off my arm than spend two hours with little kids.” Claire looked back at the shop to see Rhees and the children waving.

“I don’t mean watch the children.
Some
people aren’t afraid of kids, you know.” He scowled at Claire. “I meant, why’d she offer to help out like that? I told her she could go home once we set off. She isn’t getting paid, she hates me, and I treat her like shit. She’s going home in a few days, and I think she pretty much knows by now that I’m not planning to let her get her open water dives in.”

“So, you’re really planning to do that? I can’t believe this. If word gets out that you’re taking students’ money and not delivering . . .”

He shrugged. “I haven’t decided, but she’s only begged me once. That’s not enough. I
thought
I wanted my pound of flesh.” He looked like he was rethinking his plan, but Claire laughed.

“Rhees and I spend a lot of time together in the office. I think I’ve learned a few things about her. You think you’re punishing her by keeping her from diving.” It was a statement not a question. “She’s scared to death to dive. She’s a scaredy moggy, afraid of her own shadow, but when she has a point to make—she digs in her heels and won’t let it go.”

“She’s a feisty one,” Paul said with wide eyes. “I took her for a mouse, but I was wrong,
and
she’s getting feistier with each day.”

“All you’ve done is given her an excuse to get out of making her point. Now, she can go home and still live with herself because, even though she didn’t do what she set out to do, it’s your fault, not hers.”

Claire went back to setting up the Swenson’s gear for them and even though he couldn’t see Rhees anymore, Paul still stared at the shop, the muscle in his cheek twitched.

oOo

The boat returned an hour and a half later. Rhees didn’t pitch in to help because she didn’t want to leave the children unattended while their mother was still busy, but they gathered on the deck near the boat when they finished.

“See ya Sunday cuz,” Randy yelled to Rhees as he left. She waved back.

“So, were you two good for Miss Williams?” Mrs. Swenson asked her children.

“Please, call me Rhees.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but we’re trying to teach our children to show respect for their elders. I hope you don’t mind if we keep the formality.”

“Yes. That’s fine. My parents were the same way,” Rhees assured her.

“Thank you so much for babysitting. It was nice to get back in the water again,” Mrs. Swenson said.

“My pleasure. They were no trouble at all.” Rhees leaned down to talk to the kids. “We did our own night dive, didn’t we?”

“Yes!” the children agreed enthusiastically. “We saw lots of fish and some were this big!” Asher held his arms out wide to demonstrate.

“Tell your mom what else we saw,” Rhees encouraged.

“A otter puss,” Imogen said.

Rhees couldn’t help but laugh until she noticed the look on Paul’s face. The way he stared, she couldn’t tell whether he was angry with her, again, or something else.

“It was really just a night
snorkel
,” she continued, trying to assure Paul even more than Mrs. Swenson that she didn’t do anything to be concerned about. “We stayed right by the dock. I didn’t leave their side—I would never do that. I suited them up with flotation devices and flashlights from the gear room—I hope that’s okay?” She looked at Paul, wondering if she’d figured out his problem. Maybe he didn’t like that she’d been so bold as to use his gear.