Coincidence - Alan May [37]
Mac and Charlie lowered the Zodiac into the water and Dr. Williams climbed in it to keep watch over the swimmers. The students swam in small groups, divided on the basis of their galley watches. Watches E and F went first.
Pierre and Melissa, in watch F, jumped, hand in hand, from the side of the ship into the shining water.
“So warm!” Pierre shouted as he came up for air. “I can’t believe it!”
They paddled about in circles around each other for a few minutes, diving down and popping up to splash each other. The water, with the sunshine beating down on it, was warmer than the water in the showers onboard.
Pierre headed for the ladder, shouting, “I’m going to jump in again—but this time, from up there! Come on!”
Melissa looked at the bowsprit to which he was pointing, almost thirty feet above the water. Was he crazy? She was a good diver, and a competitive spirit, but there was no way she was going to jump from that height. She shook her head and gritted her teeth, one eye shut and one open, as she watched Pierre getting ready to jump.
Pierre’s leap into the water (“Whoa! Magnifique!” he shouted as he emerged from below the surface) inspired several other kids to climb up onto the bowsprit; once on it, however, and peering down—way down—into the sea below them, most of them inched their way back and jumped off the side of the ship instead. Only a couple were bold enough to follow Pierre’s example.
Soon their half hour of swim time was up, and galley watches C and D jumped in. Pierre tried to get some of this group to take the plunge off the bowsprit but there were no takers. Maybe all the physical challenges and discipline at Caneff had been worth something, he thought. Not that he would ever go back.
Suddenly there was a shout from Ryan, a Floatie in Melissa’s deck-watch group:
“SHARK!”
Everyone on deck raced to the side, hands shielding their eyes as they searched the water for the creature, pointing and shouting back and forth (“Where?” “What’s that over there?” “No, I don’t see anything!”) as they tried not to panic. Anika, fighting her own panic, was a model of calm on the outside. She yelled for those farthest from the ship to head for the Zodiac—“NOW!” —and for the others to come straight to the ladder, where Mac was waiting to help haul them over the side with all possible speed.
Within minutes, all of the students were safely onboard. No one else had caught a glimpse of the elusive shark, if in fact there had been one at all. But, even though it might have been a false alarm, watches A and B had to miss their swim.
“Another adventure to be tellin’ the grandkids, eh?” Mac said.
Anika had organized the first onboard dance for that evening. Just after 2000 hours, everyone—except those on watch duty, of course—gathered amidships. Mary Wilson had bought a big donkey-shaped piñata in Puerto Vallarta, and Dave had hung it on the main boom. The kids took turns whacking it with a stick until it finally burst, spilling brightly wrapped candies all over the deck.
After this rollicking start, however, some of the kids reverted to adolescent shyness. Pierre and Melissa lost no time in getting together on the dance floor, but most of the boys hung out on one side of the room, and most of the girls waited on the other.
Hoping the students would follow suit, Dave Cameron took Anika’s arm and steered her onto the floor; Tom Michaels did the same with Sharon Rock; Mary Wilson followed suit and pulled Dr. Williams to his feet.
The second number was a Latin beat, a medley of fast salsa tunes that went on for nearly half an hour. Pierre and Melissa signaled for their cabinmates to get up and join them in a group dance. This inspired some of the other kids, especially the girls, to start dancing in informal groups. As the evening wore on, more students paired off into couples.
Melissa took special note of the