The calm within the tank was broken as a body descended from the ceiling. It was a diver. His head was encased fully in a mask that allowed him to look out at the audience and, as Caddie discovered, speak to them through a microphone. He hovered amidst the kelp as the fish, clearly well used to the routine, swarmed about him with great interest.

“Good afternoon.” The voice, although slightly tinny, was warm. “Welcome to the kelp forest exhibit of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. My name is Brian, and I’ll be your tour guide today.”

Reaching into a bag at his side, he removed from it a handful of something and released it into the water. The fish, frenzied, darted around him, eating. “As you can see,” Brian said, “they know when it’s lunchtime.”

He then launched into a description of the kelp forest ecosystem, presenting facts about the fish that Caddie heard and then immediately forgot. She was more interested in the way in which the diver hung so effortlessly in the water. He moved his legs only occasionally, and yet he neither fell nor rose. She found herself looking at his face through the mask and realizing that he was cute.

How does he know all this stuff? she wondered. She tried to picture herself giving a talk to so many people. There was no way, not only because she knew nothing about the ocean, but because she couldn’t stand the idea of all those faces looking at her.

“This little fellow is a garibaldi,” Brian said, pointing to a bright orange fish that seemed to be attacking his mask. “He’s the state fish of California. Right now he thinks I’m trying to get at the eggs he’s guarding in his nest over there; that’s why he’s getting all up in my face.”

A ripple of laughter ran through the audience. Brian went on to tell them about the sheephead, a large pink and black striped fish that kept itself near the bottom of the tank. “Do you think that sheephead is a boy or a girl?” he asked.

“A boy!” one of Caddie’s younger neighbors called out, while elsewhere the opposing view was presented by someone else.

“Well, you’re both right,” Brian said. “The female sheephead can actually change from a girl to a boy when there aren’t enough males around to reproduce.”

“Dude,” a teenage boy behind Caddy said to his friend, “it’s a transvestite fish.”

“Actually, it’s a transsexual fish,” Caddie said, turning around. “Transvestites just wear the clothing of the opposite sex.”

The boy laughed as she turned back around. She noticed the mother next to her give her a questioning glance and resisted the urge to lean over and say, “I know because I’m wearing men’s underwear right now.”

“I bet you guys have a lot of questions,” Brian said, and a dozen hands shot up.