She could do this. She nodded and got into the rhythm, kicking slowly through the water. The life jacket kept her afloat, and with the sand not far away, Tess felt confident she wouldn’t drown. Ed tapped her arm and pointed to a stingray gliding along the bottom. She gasped, her heart racing, uncertain if it was in fear or excitement. Then they reached the coral, and she forgot about being scared.
Colour and life. More fish than she’d ever seen in her life swam around the brightly coloured corals. It seemed almost like a competition what would be the most vibrant, the coral or the fish. Tiny fluorescent blue fish darted around coral which looked like branches, and bigger rainbow fish swam around orange coral which reminded her of a brain.
So much was happening, Tess didn’t know where to look first. Then she spotted a turtle lazily floating nearby, and she stopped breathing. Seeing things like this on TV didn’t come close to experiencing it firsthand. It was all so visceral and real. She grabbed Ed and pointed frantically. He nodded, and he smiled at her, the motion awkward with the snorkel in his mouth. But their eyes met, and the connection was instant; understanding, but also a deeper attraction. She longed to slip her hand into his, and swim side-by-side together, but perhaps she was reading him incorrectly. Instead she circled the coral with him until Gretchen directed them back to the boat.
“What did you think?” Ed asked as he towelled himself dry.
“Incredible,” she breathed. “I never expected such beauty.”
“It’s pretty special,” he agreed. “Do you want to go up to the top deck? You can sometimes see turtles or manta rays from there.”
She nodded and followed him up the steps to an open viewing platform. Dobby and Heath were already there with Sam, talking to one of the crew. Sam was asking about their schedule.
“I think Sam might be serious about buying the business,” Ed said, steering her over to the railing where they could listen.
“Isn’t he in the army?”
“He’s getting out next month,” Ed said. “He was going to head over east to help his pregnant sister, but she doesn’t want his help, so he needs to find something else to do with his time.”
Running a tour boat was a far cry from the army, but maybe that was the point. The boat was heading away from the shore into darker, deeper water. She shivered.
Ed wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Cold? We can go down out of the wind.”
“No, I’m fine.” She liked his arm around her. “Do you do this often?”
He shook his head. “No, I went out with Georgie once, but most of the time I stay around the Ridge or snorkel off the beach.”
“It looks like it’s getting deep.” She couldn’t hide the nerves in her tone.
“Yeah, the continental shelf drops away not far off shore. But don’t worry, you’ll be fine. You did really well snorkelling.”
His confidence in her was reassuring.
“We’ve found a shark,” the crew was saying. “Heading there now.”
Tess frowned, and Ed explained. “They have planes in the air looking for them. The pilots feed the coordinates to the boats.”
Gretchen called them all together to explain what would happen when they arrived at the whale shark. “We’re splitting you into two groups. One group will swim with the shark and the other will be dropped ahead of it.” She smiled. “Then the boat will loop around to pick up the first group and drop them ahead of the second group.”
Tess’s hands clenched. They would be left in the middle of the ocean, alone, with a nine metre long creature. This was a bad idea.
Gretchen called out names for each group. Tess was separated from the others.
“Gretchen, I’ll stick with Tess,” Ed called.
She nodded and made an adjustment to her notes.
“I’ll be right by your side,” Ed murmured. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” He rubbed her back, and she realised she was panting. Not so subtle in her fear.
“Maybe you should go without me. I don’t want to slow you down.”
“Trust me, Tess. You don’t want to miss this. It’s incredible.”
She’d trusted him enough to get in a car with him and drive over a thousand kilometres. “OK.”
They suited back up, grabbing goggles and flippers, with Tess adding her life jacket, and readying themselves on the marlin board. Then the call came, “Go, go, go,” and Tess didn’t have time to be scared. She slid into the water and kicked furiously in the direction the guide swam, keeping in line with her as they’d been instructed. The clear, dark blue water seemed endless. She couldn’t see anything except tiny spores of something, maybe plankton, floating in the water. Ed squeezed her arm and pointed. Out of the blue a massive mouth appeared, followed slowly by a body.
Tess stared, unable to comprehend something so big was only metres from her. It swam past, the white markings on its back contrasting with the blue surrounding it. Then Ed nudged her and she swam alongside it, floundering a bit as she tried to keep up. One slow stroke of its tail propelled it far faster than she could kick, and her breath came in gasps.
