ESCAPADE

Chapter 4

Wednesday 29, April

"Okay above?"

Louis and Harry lifted their arms and steepled their fingers above their heads.

"Okay below?"

Both held up their right hand with their thumb and pointer fingers touching, their other three fingers sticking outwards.

"Help?"

They straightened their right arms and waved them up and down.

"Buddy up?"

They held out their right hands and scissored their middle finger away from their pointer finger.

"Ascend?"

Both jutted their thumbs up.

"Four times two?"

Harry blinked, his brows scrunched. Louis held up eight fingers, Harry glancing at Louis' hands and quickly mirroring his pose.

"Alright, very good," their guide, Ezra, said, all three men laughing. Ezra tilted his head sideways over the edge of his small boat and, the dark, leathery skin around his mouth wrinkling. He tapped his watch. "Thirty minutes, boys."

. . .

Both Harry and Louis had many hours of diving under their belts from various holidays through the years. They offered their dive cards to Ezra before they even got on board and successfully demonstrated that they were knowledgeable about all of their gear and safety rules. Ezra stayed a few metres behind them underwater, giving them the illusion that they were exploring alone. They wouldn't be diving terribly deep for terribly long. Their dive was more focused on beautiful plant life and creatures, not on exploring the depths of the sea.

The rhythmic click of air coming in and out of Louis' mouthpiece synced with Harry's flippers swaying in front of him. Whenever Louis went diving, he was struck by how similar it seemed to being in space, even though you were going the completely opposite direction. They were weightless. Floating. The pressure of clear blue water cushioning them felt unreal, as did the rainbow of creatures and plants they came in contact with.

Louis' eyes followed a school of large, shimmering fish with yellow scales and iridescent purple fins. He kicked a touch faster and swam up Harry's body. Harry turned towards him and held up a waterproof camera Ezra let them borrow, a red rubber cord fastening it to his wrist. He smiled and snapped a photo of Louis holding up a peace sign beside a school of tiny, shimmering pink fish, the school swimming so fast it looked like underwater sparkles.

Louis swam next to him and tried to get their faces together in the photo, vibrations coming from Harry's mouthpiece as he tried to snap an underwater selfie. Both had on matching black shortie wetsuits, the clingy material hitting just above their elbows and knees.

They swam to a particularly colourful patch of coral and posed in front of it, taking turns photographing each other. An enormous turtle swam below their flippers mid-photoshoot. Louis could hear Harry exclaim something in excitement and flip his fins faster, both smiling into their mouthpieces.

After taking a few more photos and trying to race a school of plump magenta fish, Louis tapped his watch. Harry nodded and jutted his thumb up to the surface, both starting a slow, careful ascent with Ezra swimming above them.

. . .

A band made up of steel drummers, guitarists, men on homemade hand percussion, and a lone accordion played at the front of an outdoor restaurant. Their straw hats swayed in the gentle breeze, sandals and bare feet tapping on the sand, a couple of older women dancing off to the side.