I pulled the trigger, and nothing happened because the safety was still on, so I reached over and unhooked it. It made a tiny click, and the startled fish darted away to another part of the rock. I could still see it and I gently kicked with my bright yellow flippers so as to make no noise while I followed it. As the wrasse settled down and started sucking in more plankton, I pulled the trigger again. This time the handle jolted, and the spear points made a crunching sound as they hit the rock. There was a cloud of smoky mud from where the spear had knocked the sediment in the crevices of the limestone rock off into the water. The spear points had hit on either side of the slender yellow-and-red-striped fish. It darted away unhurt with a flick of its black, translucent tail.

I looked down at my spear hanging from the white nylon cord in the water below me. I could see that one of the points was bent where it had hit the rock. As I swam toward the shore I jarred my mask with the butt of the spear gun and water got in. I couldn’t see and the water got up my nose. I felt like I was dying. I dropped the spear gun, and it sank to the bottom. I could hear the “chink” of the metal tube as it hit the rocks on the sea floor even as I pulled off my mask to blow my nose into my hands.

I got the mask back on and looked to see how far down my new birthday present was. It lay only about fifteen feet below me. I could dive that far, so I was very relieved because I knew that if I lost the best present I had ever been given the first time I tried to use it, Janet would say she knew I wasn’t old enough and how she never approved of this idea in the first place. And also that I’d never get another one.

When I dived down and got the gun, my ears hurt from the water pressure so I turned around quickly and kicked hard to get back up to the surface. I was surprised how easy it was with the flippers to dive down and how quickly I could propel myself back up.