“It has its moments, but more often than not, it was more constraining.” Lorenzo sighed. “My family is very?.?.?” He paused, seeming to search for the right word “.?.?.?Traditional, and there were certain expectations my siblings and I were required to follow and uphold.”
I can imagine that being a royal means having to follow a strict set of rules.
“And on an island, there is no escape. I can relate,” Sabrina said.
He angled his head so his mirrored sunglasses stared back at her.
“My mom is a lawyer. My dad is an engineer. The baseline of standards they established for my sister and I to achieve was heads and tails above what the parents of our friends expected from them.” She dipped her head.
And when Mom and Dad divorced, Mom’s standards grew even higher. Things might have been different if Dad hadn’t decided to distance himself from us.
“It’s not easy to live in the shadow of giants,” Lorenzo said.
“No. It’s not. I still vividly remember how excited I was when I could finally afford a deposit on an apartment in Dallas.”
“Was it difficult to move out of your parents’ home?”
Sabrina’s body tensed. “Not really. As soon as I finished high school, I was more than ready to move out on my own. I wanted my own space and a place that didn’t have so many painful memories.”
Lorenzo touched her hand. “Would you like to talk about it?”
Sabrina wrinkled her nose. “Not especially. It would just ruin our morning.”
The subject was closed for discussion.
Lorenzo motioned for them to pick up their paddles. “If you ever need a friendly ear, I’m here for you.”
Sabrina nodded. The sound of their paddles slicing through the water filled the silence.
* * *
Lorenzo ducked his head as their boat entered the four-foot-wide opening of the mouth of a sea cave. It took several moments for Sabrina’s eyesight to acclimate to the darkness. Water dripped from the ceiling. Each sound they made reverberated throughout the chamber.
Lorenzo clicked on his headlamp, flooding the cavern with rays of light. “Where possible, try not to touch the walls. The oil from human hands weakens the rock.”
He’s already warned me about rogue sneaker waves and for the potential of the tide to rise quickly. Now there is a chance that rocks might fall on us?
Sabrina gulped. She turned her paddle horizontal and drew her limbs in tighter to her body. “I don’t think we should be taking a risk if it’s possible for the roof to cave in.”
“It’s not that the roof will collapse upon us. The oil from human skin destroys the deposition of minerals, meaning the twisted patterns of rock.” He used his paddle as a rudder to let the current carry them deeper into the cave.
Sabrina raised her head, marveling at the unique formations. “Oh.” The thumping of her heart against her ribs calmed.
Deeper into the cave, the ceiling height grew lower. Lorenzo crouched. “There is something special I want to show you that will be worth all the trouble.”
The volume of water lapping over the sides of the kayak grew, pooling at Sabrina’s feet. “Lorenzo?”
“Nearly there,” he said, his voice strained. She turned and saw him fighting to maintain the kayak away from the jagged walls of the cave.
She held her breath, sitting rigid and on full alert. Looking ahead, about sixty feet away, she saw the blinding dot of natural light—the exit of the cave. Lorenzo’s headlamp suddenly turned off. The scream she had been about to let out died in her throat.
Throughout the cavern, the water glowed an eerie, unearthly shade of sapphire and seafoam green. Like a hummingbird drawn to the sweet nectar of a flower, Sabrina was in a trance, unable to look away from the fluorescent water. The air was damp and smelled of seaweed.
“It was so dark when we entered the cave. How is it possible we didn’t see this when we first entered?” she whispered.
Lorenzo wiped his brow with his forearm. “At the precise spot the kayak is hovering over, there is a second underwater cave. Sunlight streaming through the second cave’s mouth turns the water this incredible shade. It’s only visible from here to the back half of the cave.”
“I didn’t make it to the Blue Grotto of Capri, but I imagine if I had, it would look just like this.” From a plastic Ziploc bag, she removed her phone, filmed a short video clip, then returned it to the baggie.
