Javier had made it to the top and was standing on the edge of the ridge, facing the blue light. His body was motionless, as though his feet had become rooted into the rock. As Bia swam toward him, a red message flashed in front of her. She quickly shut her eyes to avoid its contents, but then opened them again, acknowledging that she was only delaying the inevitable.
Javier turned on his propulsion device and headed up the face of the rock. Bia hesitantly followed, unsure of what they would find and expecting the worst. Yet she knew she must. Her heart pounded and she felt a coldness in the pit of her stomach. Yet she was compelled to go forward. She was powerless to stay behind. The pull of the light was overwhelmingly strong, much stronger than her fear of discovering the battered, lifeless remains of the Espírito.
Javier had made it to the top and was standing on the edge of the ridge, facing the blue light. His body was motionless, as though his feet had become rooted into the rock. As Bia swam toward him, a red message flashed in front of her. She quickly shut her eyes to avoid its contents, but then opened them again, acknowledging that she was only delaying the inevitable.
Javier: Que diabo?
A chill ran through her body as Bia gingerly swam up to Javier’s side. She stopped and stared, unbelieving, at what lay on the ocean floor below her, bathed in blue light. Through her diving skin, she sensed the continuous buzz of a low-frequency electrical hum on her skin, which raised the tiny hairs on her arms as if she was standing right next to a high-voltage power transmitter. She looked over at Javier, whose face mask reflected the scene before them.
Bia: Meu Deus. What is that, Javier?
Javier: Bia, we need to go back. Now. 38, 4, 40.404, N, 27, 58, 22.8288, W. Hurry.
~~~
Bia saw the sailboat bobbing in the water against the bright glare of the setting sun, and was certain it was the Espírito. They still did not have contact with the sloop, but they would soon be at the boat’s side and hopefully learn what had happened and why it was out here and off its course for Pico Island. It had taken Bia and Javier almost three hours to get back to the cabin cruiser from that underwater ridge, even though they ran the propulsion devices at their top speed once they cleared the stone forest. It took another hour to get their boat to these coordinates from their previous position.
Anxiety, spawned by the worry of not knowing if her parents were on the sailboat or if they were even alive, tore at Bia’s stomach. She knew it was a miracle that they found the Espírito, and if she hadn’t experienced it herself, she would never accept the story. She doubted if anyone would believe what she and Javier saw on the other side of that ridge. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that they had located her parents’ boat.
It wasn’t long before Javier pulled the cabin cruiser alongside the sailboat’s hull. Bia quickly climbed aboard as Javier tied up their boat to the larger craft.
“Mama. Papa. Are you here?” she called as she headed down the companionway into the cabin.
To be continued
Check out “Lost at Sea.” Bia and Javier search for their parents in the Atlantic Ocean. Will they find their parents? Or encounter something totally unexpected.
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Written by Allorianna Matsourani
Copyright 2019
Allorianna Matsourani Author 