Page 61 of Tiger's Voyage

When your fond eyes smile near in perigee.

But when that loving face is turned from me,

Low falls the tide, and the grim rocks appear,

And earth’s dim coast-line seems a thing to fear.

You are the moon, dear one, and I the sea

I smiled and reread the poem a few times. Maybe it was a sign. I’d told Phet I was like the moon. Maybe the universe was trying to tell me that I belonged with Ren. It was an accurate comparison. The moon and the sea were destined to affect one another but were never able to touch. I sighed and saw it was past dawn. I put on my swimsuit, shorts, and a T-shirt, skipped breakfast, and ran to meet Wes at the pool.

I was the first student there. He was busy setting out diving equipment.

“Good morning. Need some help?” I asked.

“Hey!” He smiled. “Good morning, yourself. Thanks for asking but I’m all done. Are you ready for your first lesson?”

“Yes. Did you lose your accent overnight?”

“Nah. It comes in handy when I’m trying to put overprotective fathers or jealous boyfriends at ease. It’s also gotten me a lot of dates and better grades in college. Unfortunately, you have both overprotectiveandjealous boyfriends. I’m surprised they haven’t killed each other.”

I laughed. “Believe me, they’ve tried, and now you’ve given them someone new to focus their angst on, I’m afraid.”

Wes shrugged and grinned, revealing a cute dimple in his right cheek. “That’s okay. Keeps things interesting. In fact, here comes trouble. Stand back and watch the show.” He turned to Ren and Kishan. “Well, good mornin’, fellers. Looks like Kelsey wins the award for early riser. And doesn’t she look purtier than a pat of butter meltin’ all over a stack of griddle cakes?”

Ren ignored Wes and leaned over to kiss my cheek. “Did you eat?”

“No. No time.”

He opened his bag. “Brought you an apple.” Ren winked and sat down on the other side of Kishan.

“Alrighty now. Let’s get started, shall we? First things, first. There are two barriers that prevent humans from diving. The first is we don’t have gills. And if you ever do find a man with gills you can fry me up, call me a catfish, and serve me with hushpuppies. The second problem is that water puts a great amount of pressure on your chest and lungs and would eventually cause your lungs to collapse. Sure as shootin’, they’d pop like a smoked sausage left too long on the barbeque.”

As he got down to business, his accent gradually dropped off.

“Without your gear, your lungs wouldn’t have the power to inflate even if you had a way to get air, so your tank provides not only oxygen but also measures the psi, or pounds per square inch of pressure, and equalizes it so your lungs will work. SCUBA is an acronym for selfcontained underwater breathing apparatus. We’re going to be working with both open-circuit sets and rebreathers.”

Mr. Kadam walked in and took a seat. Wes nodded and continued. “As I was saying, Mr. Kadam felt you should learn to use both as he is as yet undetermined which one will suit your diving purposes. We’ll start with the open-circuit and work our way to the rebreather.

“In our training today, we’ll learn the name and functions of all the diving equipment. We’ll start with the easy ones first.” He began passing different pieces of equipment around so we could examine them. “Booties, underwater compass, depth gauge, dive knife, and BCD, or buoyancy control device. You wear it like a jacket. I’ll show you how to use it later. Right now I want you to focus on the names and the uses for things.”

Wes winked at me, and I giggled. Kishan snapped the depth gauge in half, and Ren squeezed the compass too hard. The glass popped and cracked, and the compass fell apart.

“Sorry,” they both mumbled tightly while I glared.

They didn’t sound apologetic, but Wes just let it roll right off his back.

“No problem. They belong to you anyway.” He went on, “We’ve got fins or flippers, a hood for cold-water diving, and a slate. There are two types, one with common fish pictures you can point to, and the other is blank with a special pencil. They’re normally attached to the BCD, and which one is the BCD, Kishan?”

“The jacket.”

“And what does it stand for, Ren?”

“Buoyancy control device.”

“Good. We’ve got about five more to go. This is your primary regulator that provides your oxygen. This is the octopus or alternate air source—it’s your backup second-stage regulator. If your primary fails, or if you need to share air, you use this. It’s usually a neon color, and you’ll find it on your right side between your chin and rib cage. We’ve got a snorkel for breathing if you’re swimming on the surface, an SPG, or submersible pressure gauge, to tell you how much air is in your tank, and then there’s the cylinder, which is your air tank. Most contain about twelve liters of oxygen.”

“How long does that last?” I asked.