Page 36 of No One Aboard
Day 3 at Sea
Rylan trailed after MJ. It was hard to stay upset underwater, and there was no dive guide as dignified as MJ Tuckett. She seemed to know the sea with the intimacy of an old lover. She could coax a snow crab from its shell or point out a stonefish disguising itself as a stone. She moved through the water less like an astronaut exploring a new world and more like an appendage of the current, at one with every movement of the sea.
Rylan felt cumbersome by her side. He struggled to keep even buoyancy, releasing too much air from his BCD and falling into a cloud of sand. Or he’d add too much air, and MJ would patiently catch onto his straps and pull him level once more. Mostly, he tried not to move too much, and the two of them kept a steady, gentle pace.
MJ picked up a shell and revealed a black-and-orange sea slug underneath. She waited as Rylan drew it on his whiteboard.
She gave an approving nod at the drawing and continued ahead.
Rylan studied her as he followed. Why had MJ insisted onbeing his dive buddy? Did she think she was protecting him? As if he hadn’t had to live with his father his entire life. And why did she have to be soobviousabout it? MJ was not the kind of person who was good at keeping secrets, Rylan guessed all too belatedly.
What if she confronted Francis again? What would Francis do if he knew Rylan had told someone what went on in the Cameron house?
MJ paused over a patch of coral, studying a cluster of cryptobenthic fish that huddled inside. Those fish were named literally for beinghidden on the bottom; otherwise, bigger fish might spot them and gobble up a whole school like candy.
I’m cryptobenthic, Rylan thought.Hiding on the seafloor, always ducking my head.Fish could sense danger laced inside the tide. Entire schools would go darting long before Rylan ever saw the shark.
Rylan sensed something dangerous now that MJ knew the truth. Should he beg her to keep quiet? That would never work. Maybe he could keep Francis far from her until the trip was over. But what if MJ somehow prevented Rylan from returning home?
That would ruin everything. If Rylan abandoned his parents, whether he ran away or MJ took him away, it would be a failure. It would be proof that Rylan could never have handled being a Cameron in the first place. Francis would be right.
Why did I tell her?he thought to himself furiously, and an answer came to him.
Because I’m a coward.
Something caught Rylan’s attention. A few yards away, a jellyfish glided around a field of rocks. It was mesmerizing, pale, translucent, and almost hypnotic in the way it moved. Rylan swam to get closer. It was a moon jellyfish, and well-named. When Rylan pictured little pieces of the moon, he saw themlike this. The jellyfish was about the size of a football helmet. Its whole body rippled to propel it downward, and it slipped into an opening between the rocks. Rylan fumbled with his whiteboard and underwater pen. Drawing the jellyfish would never do it justice, but he wanted to try anyway. It calmed him, like it always did, to zero in on something beautiful and captivating. The world above the surface was miles away. He didn’t need to be so scared. Here, he could just worry about sea slugs and jellyfish.
He swam over the mouth of the little cave. Inside, the jellyfish looked just like a pearl nestled in the dark. He uncapped his pen.
He concentrated everything he could into his drawing. The more details he captured now, the more he could remind himself of later when he drew it properly.
Rylan found that he was squinting to see his own work. How had it gotten so dark all of a sudden?
He looked up, and his heartbeat hammered to life. He was sinking into the little cave of rocks. He hadn’t even noticed for a moment—the pull of the water was so slow and serene. He kicked to orient himself and swim upward again. He didn’t ascend. He kicked harder. He might as well have been on a treadmill: the current in the cave was far stronger than he’d thought, and it worked like a conveyer belt against him.
Rylan stopped, trying to calm himself. But he only sank deeper, and that’s when he realized: he was trapped.
He dropped the whiteboard and kicked with all his might, flailing his arms and struggling to gain any traction against the water that was sucking him down. He was well inside the cave now and could see a circle of blue light that marked its entrance at the top. He screamed into his regulator, and a stream of bubbles rose upward.
MJ wasn’t going to get to him in time. Who knew how deepthe cave went? Could MJ even rescue him if she did know? How long until he ran out of air and suffocated? Would anyone even find his body?
Rylan’s eyes burned with frantic tears. The amplified sound of his breathing in the regulator became frenzied and all-consuming. This must be the final sound astronauts heard if they died in space: only the damning noise of their own last breaths.
Rylan continued to swim, but he was already exhausted, already aching and breathless.
Until overhead, a form blocked part of the blue light.
MJ.
Her outline grew bigger as she moved closer, navigating the cave quickly and carefully. Her gloved hand found Rylan’s, and he started to sob inside his mask, which had fogged up. He was saved.
They swam together. With her free hand, MJ grasped the sides of the cave and shoved Rylan upward. He seemed to fly with the strength of her push, and in a blur of blue he was out of the cave. He looked back down.
MJ was still inside.
Rylan waited for her to glide upward and out, but she didn’t. She was struggling, just like he had been. Behind her mask, her eyes had rounded, and one of her long arms stretched up toward Rylan.
For help.
