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.Can you swim?”“Can I swim?” Clay looked quizzically at him.“A little.I haven’t since I was a child.”“Well, good.I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then, eh?”Clay sat there nursing another frozen question.Greg looked across at him and gave one of his earblasting laughs as he flipped off the screen.Clay’s dreams were troubled.His childhood sleep had often been invaded by vivid night visions.The phantoms sometimes lingered with him for a while after he had awakened.On mornings when he was slow coming back to consciousness, it felt as if part of him stayed there in that land of shadows.For a while he would find it difficult to tell which was the reality.Dawn carried the echoes of those troubled nights.Greg was clearly one of those people who jumped from his sleep instantly ready for the day.Clay had to adjust his usually rather sluggish start to accommodate the other man’s morning rhythm.The strong coffee helped and he ate a little of the cereal on offer.Greg finished eating.He picked up his eating irons, drinker and plate.“When you’re ready, I’ll get Darren and Skye to give you the sub-aqua tour!” Clay didn’t know what sub-aqua meant but he figured that he’d find out soon enough.Greg led him along a steep walkway and into a large tunnel.Clay started to count off his paces in order to get some idea of how far inside the ground they were going.Before he had reached five hundred they had emerged into bright sunlight.A great chamber surrounded them.The jagged channel went up for a long way above them and he could see the gleaming blue desert sky.Walkways had been engineered out of the rocky sides where they stood.Looking into the chasm below them he could see the sun reflecting in clear water.“Come on,” Greg beckoned.He walked to the edge and gripped the bars of a wide ladder which was bolted securely to the cave wall.Clay could see that it went down a long way.He counted a couple of hundred steps as he carefully followed Greg into the underground lair.On the descent he thought about the cavern raid he had been on with Ahab’s recovery crew.Before that, he had never given any thought to what lay below the ground.His take on life had been somewhat the same.He hadn’t known that so many other things were happening right underneath where he stood.The sight that greeted him at the bottom of the ladder was magical.The shaft of sunlight made a wide circle in the water and threw dancing patterns of reflections onto the cavern walls.The walls were further lit by yellow, artificial lights.These too reflected off the water and rocks, bathing the entire place in an iridescent glow.The water was crystal clear and he could see the rock formations stretching away below the surface.He stood enchanted for a moment in the glittering.Below him, two dark shapes became discernable in the water.They were moving quickly upward towards the surface.They emerged from the depths, closer to where Clay and Greg stood.Both figures broke surface at the same time and stood upright on the rocks in front of him.They were clad in black skin tight suits which also covered their heads.The water streamed from them in rivulets.Their faces were obscured by masking devices and breathing tubes.Standing in the flickering light, they looked otherworldly.They removed the tubes from their mouths.The nearest one pushed up the mask and pulled the headpiece away.He immediately recognized Skye.She was smiling and shaking out her hair.“Hello, Clay.I’m glad you’re coming down.You have to see this,” she laughed.Greg stepped forward until he was shin deep in the water and began helping her off with a harness.It ran around her body and over her shoulders, securing two large cylinders to her back.“Air supply,” Darren said.Clay lost all track of time as Darren and Skye initiated him into the mysteries of diving.They helped him put on one of the weird suits and showed him the aqualungs and tubes.They told him to wet the mask because of condensation.They showed him signals that they used to communicate when submerged.Eventually, when he had gained enough confidence, he sat on one of the ledges just beneath the surface, getting used to breathing from his air tanks.When they felt he was ready, his two guardians flanked him as he took his first tentative strokes under water.It was exhilarating.He quickly indicated that he was ready and they set off.Skye led the way and Darren stayed beside him.Aided by the flippers, he rapidly got used to the ease of forward movement.He could see ahead clearly through his mask as they made their way past the descending, rocky outcrops.These waters went a long way down.Drawn by curiosity he made to go slightly deeper.Darren touched his wrist and signalled a clear “No!” He realized that his guardian was right.He wasn’t ready for that.He signalled back his compliance.‘Another time’, he thought.His desire for further exploration would keep.Beyond the cavern’s immediate circle of light the visibility was still good.Swimming into the blue-green haze, he marvelled at just how clear the water was.He started to take in the sights of this amazing underworld.They hadn’t been in the water for very long before a second, brightly lit space came into view ahead of them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Can you swim?”“Can I swim?” Clay looked quizzically at him.“A little.I haven’t since I was a child.”“Well, good.I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then, eh?”Clay sat there nursing another frozen question.Greg looked across at him and gave one of his earblasting laughs as he flipped off the screen.Clay’s dreams were troubled.His childhood sleep had often been invaded by vivid night visions.The phantoms sometimes lingered with him for a while after he had awakened.On mornings when he was slow coming back to consciousness, it felt as if part of him stayed there in that land of shadows.For a while he would find it difficult to tell which was the reality.Dawn carried the echoes of those troubled nights.Greg was clearly one of those people who jumped from his sleep instantly ready for the day.Clay had to adjust his usually rather sluggish start to accommodate the other man’s morning rhythm.The strong coffee helped and he ate a little of the cereal on offer.Greg finished eating.He picked up his eating irons, drinker and plate.“When you’re ready, I’ll get Darren and Skye to give you the sub-aqua tour!” Clay didn’t know what sub-aqua meant but he figured that he’d find out soon enough.Greg led him along a steep walkway and into a large tunnel.Clay started to count off his paces in order to get some idea of how far inside the ground they were going.Before he had reached five hundred they had emerged into bright sunlight.A great chamber surrounded them.The jagged channel went up for a long way above them and he could see the gleaming blue desert sky.Walkways had been engineered out of the rocky sides where they stood.Looking into the chasm below them he could see the sun reflecting in clear water.“Come on,” Greg beckoned.He walked to the edge and gripped the bars of a wide ladder which was bolted securely to the cave wall.Clay could see that it went down a long way.He counted a couple of hundred steps as he carefully followed Greg into the underground lair.On the descent he thought about the cavern raid he had been on with Ahab’s recovery crew.Before that, he had never given any thought to what lay below the ground.His take on life had been somewhat the same.He hadn’t known that so many other things were happening right underneath where he stood.The sight that greeted him at the bottom of the ladder was magical.The shaft of sunlight made a wide circle in the water and threw dancing patterns of reflections onto the cavern walls.The walls were further lit by yellow, artificial lights.These too reflected off the water and rocks, bathing the entire place in an iridescent glow.The water was crystal clear and he could see the rock formations stretching away below the surface.He stood enchanted for a moment in the glittering.Below him, two dark shapes became discernable in the water.They were moving quickly upward towards the surface.They emerged from the depths, closer to where Clay and Greg stood.Both figures broke surface at the same time and stood upright on the rocks in front of him.They were clad in black skin tight suits which also covered their heads.The water streamed from them in rivulets.Their faces were obscured by masking devices and breathing tubes.Standing in the flickering light, they looked otherworldly.They removed the tubes from their mouths.The nearest one pushed up the mask and pulled the headpiece away.He immediately recognized Skye.She was smiling and shaking out her hair.“Hello, Clay.I’m glad you’re coming down.You have to see this,” she laughed.Greg stepped forward until he was shin deep in the water and began helping her off with a harness.It ran around her body and over her shoulders, securing two large cylinders to her back.“Air supply,” Darren said.Clay lost all track of time as Darren and Skye initiated him into the mysteries of diving.They helped him put on one of the weird suits and showed him the aqualungs and tubes.They told him to wet the mask because of condensation.They showed him signals that they used to communicate when submerged.Eventually, when he had gained enough confidence, he sat on one of the ledges just beneath the surface, getting used to breathing from his air tanks.When they felt he was ready, his two guardians flanked him as he took his first tentative strokes under water.It was exhilarating.He quickly indicated that he was ready and they set off.Skye led the way and Darren stayed beside him.Aided by the flippers, he rapidly got used to the ease of forward movement.He could see ahead clearly through his mask as they made their way past the descending, rocky outcrops.These waters went a long way down.Drawn by curiosity he made to go slightly deeper.Darren touched his wrist and signalled a clear “No!” He realized that his guardian was right.He wasn’t ready for that.He signalled back his compliance.‘Another time’, he thought.His desire for further exploration would keep.Beyond the cavern’s immediate circle of light the visibility was still good.Swimming into the blue-green haze, he marvelled at just how clear the water was.He started to take in the sights of this amazing underworld.They hadn’t been in the water for very long before a second, brightly lit space came into view ahead of them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
