Here goes nothing, she thought as she did as he had. She breathed air in through the regulator as her BC deflated. Then the sky was gone and she saw nothing but water, brown and green. A moment of terror seized her as she realized that she was underwater, but a gasp on her regulator assured her that she could still breathe, and she calmed down. She fell quickly. She saw kelp rushing by her and wondered if she was going too quickly. Brian hadn’t said anything about how to stop the fall, and she seemed to be moving both too quickly and in slow motion through the water. Like Alice down the rabbit hole, she thought as she waited to see what would happen.

Her feet hit the bottom with a jolt and she stood there, not knowing what to do. She looked around for Brian and saw him hovering horizontally beside her. Behind his mask, his eyes were laughing at her. She started to tell him off, then remembered that she couldn’t talk. Instead, she glared at him and waited for him to show her what to do.

Pointing to her inflator hose, Brian mimed pushing the button to put air into it. At first Caddie didn’t understand. Then Brian indicated that she should float like he was, and she began to figure out what he wanted her to do. She pressed the button gently, letting a little air in. As her BC inflated, she attempted to hover like Brian was. Instead, she crashed to the bottom, landing heavily in the sand.

She added some more air, and this time she began to rise up. It was a strange feeling, and she felt out of control. She added too much air and felt herself rising quickly. But Brian grabbed her and, holding onto her, showed her how to let air out of her BC so that she was once again going down. Finally, she was more or less hovering in the water next to him, although she still wasn’t entirely comfortable. There’s too much to remember, she thought as Brian, holding her hand, began to swim.

She kicked, propelling herself forward. She’d thought that diving would make her feel like a fish. Instead, she felt like a hippo. A completely ungraceful hippo, she thought moodily. And Brian was wrong; she was cold. Also, her ears hurt. She moved her jaw from side to side, as she did when her ears hurt during airplane takeoffs, and the pain subsided.

Brian was swimming toward what looked like a big pipe. When they reached it, Caddie saw that it was exactly that, an old pipe, rusted and covered with all kinds of sea life. Following it, they continued to swim, Brian on one side and Caddie on the other. He’d let go of her hand, and she now found it a little easier to maneuver herself.