When she came back up about a minute later she had the mask in her hand. And after she had gasped in some air, she said, “So much for the Yanks! That’s one for the jolly old U.K., boyso!” Then she tossed my mask back to me and put on her own.

I wished I had stayed in Portofino that morning or that a speedboat would hit us or something because how was I supposed to get Jennifer to love me if I couldn’t even dive as deep as her?

Then she said, “Does the poor little infant feel terribly small?”

That’s when I got really furious and jumped onto her air mattress and kicked as hard as I could and paddled with my hands and headed straight out toward the horizon. Jennifer called out to me to stop but I just kept on going. “That’s my Lielo you’ve got there. You bring it back this instant!” she yelled. I kept going. After about five minutes I cooled down and turned the air mattress around and started to slowly paddle back into our bay. Each time a gentle swell of water would roll under me it would lift the Lielo a little and I’d sit up and scan the water but I couldn’t see Jennifer.

Then my heart started to pound and I looked around and realized that I had left her in the mouth of the bay a lot farther out than we ever went. I got really scared and started to call out her name. I started to yell it at the top of my lungs and paddle at the same time back to where I had left her.

I remembered that I had been about opposite the really big cypress tree on the hill when we had been diving for her mask. When I got there I put on my mask and swam all over looking at the sandy bottom. And I prayed, “Dear Heavenly Father, please help me to find Jennifer. Forgive me for leaving her. Please have her be fine. Please forgive me for drinking alcohol on the yacht and for drinking at Gino’s. I won’t ever do it again. Please don’t punish Jennifer because of me. Please have Jennifer be O.K.”

All I could see was sand. I began to wonder if a speedboat had hit her because a couple of water skiers were nearby. How would they have seen her in the middle of the bay? “Oh, please, Jesus, help me. Help Jennifer. Oh, Jennifer. What will Mr. Bazlinton say? What will I say? What lie can I tell? Sorry, Lord, I won’t tell a lie I’ll tell the truth, but please make her be all right so I won’t have to lie or tell the truth because she’ll be fine, Lord!”