“Recent development.”
I closed the drawer harder than necessary.
The afternoon group consisted of four certified divers: two from Georgia, one from Ohio, and a woman from Miami who had brought enough backup clips to secure a small aircraft.
The sea was calm, with visibility close to seventy feet. We descended beside the reef and moved through warm blue water while a school of yellowtail snapper shifted above us.
For nearly six minutes, I did not think about Annie.
Then one diver pointed toward a turtle resting beneath a ledge.
I acknowledged it with a normal hand signal and did not imagine Annie reacting with both arms.
Progress could be humiliatingly specific.
When we surfaced, the woman from Miami removed her regulator.
“Did you see the nurse shark?”
“Yes.”
“My husband will be furious.”
“Because he missed it?”
“He stayed home for the dishwasher repair.”
“That sounds responsible.”
“It is making a grinding noise.”
“Then perhaps he chose correctly.”
She looked toward the horizon.
“He did not.”
Back at the dock, I helped unload the tanks while Mateo rinsed the masks.
The woman who had bought sunscreen that morning waited near the shop entrance. When she saw me, she approached with the cautious expression people used around unfamiliar dogs.
“I wanted to apologize.”
“For the sunscreen?”
“For congratulating you.”
“You were trying to be kind.”
“I was also assuming too much. My sister came out last year, and she hated when people congratulated her girlfriend as though they had issued a joint statement.”
A smile escaped me.
“Your sister sounds sensible.”
“She is exhausting.”
“Those qualities often coexist.”
