Siren

7. Storm Approaching

Ivy’s POV

            Passing by Pserimos, we noticed the entrance to the harbor with its quaint collection of small hotels and café’s along the half-moon shaped beachfront next to the boat docks.    The town was surrounded by steep barren rocky hills on each side.  On the top of one of the hills was what appeared to be tiny orthodox churches, whitewashed with deep blue trim. 

“Caleb, Lets hike up to that little church if we have time, ok?”

“Sure we can try for first thing tomorrow morning.  Ok baby?” 

“Yes!!  I’m sure the view from up there will be incredible.”

“I bet it is.”  He said chuckling at me.

            We continued on to Plati and found a small cove to set anchor in.  There was no one in sight, either on boats or land.  It appeared that Plati might be uninhabited.  The landscape was barren much like Pserimos, except Plati was much smaller, just a small sheer hill jutting out of the sea.  I wasn’t sure exactly of the time, but it the sun was scorching our backs so I went down to get towels from below deck so we could go swimming.  When I came back up and reached the back of the boat at the same time as Caleb we looked in amazement at the crystal clear sea.  It must have been 20-30 feet deep but could see the amazing coral reef beneath us. 

            I dove deep into the clear blue water..  The water was so warm and salty, it soothed my body instantly.  It took some work to stay under, probably because of the added buoyancy from the extra salty water.  Caleb dived in after me, and I dunked under again and tried to open my eyes to see him swimming under water. But the salt stung and blurred my vision so I returned to surface, floating on my back under the blistering sun waiting for Caleb to resurface.  It seemed like eternity that he stayed under.  Well maybe it was just 30-45 seconds but I started to freak out a little.

“Caleb” I yelled. Then dived under again.

            Underwater I looked frantically around and saw his blurred figure about 10 feet away from me. Swimming towards him, he appeared to be just floating there.  I ran out of breath before reaching him, so I rose again to the surface to take a gulp of air before heading back down.  When I finally reached him, I took hold of his arm and started kicking feverishly to pull him to the surface.  Caleb felt limp and unresponsive as we slowly rose and broke the surface.  I put my arm around his neck in a lifesaving position as I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not and pulled him towards the boat.  What the hell was I going to do if he wasn’t breathing?  I knew CPR, but what if that didn’t work?  Just get him up on the platform, I thought, then you can see what’s going on.

            I was able to push Caleb onto the platform which was just above the water line.  Rolling him on his back and then detaching the stairs, I climbed up on the platform myself.   Leaning over him, I listened for his breathing and looked to see if his chest was moving.  Just then, his body convulsed and he coughed out a mouthful of water.  I reached down and held him tight for a few minutes without a word. 

After a time his breathing calmed and I asked. “What the hell happened to you down there Caleb?  Your one of the strongest swimmers I know.”

“I don’t know… I…” he said stumbling with his words.

“I just saved your life! So you better come up with something better than I don’t know!"

“Ivy, thank you for saving me, but I need a minute.”

“Ok I’ll go get you some orange juice from the cabin.  And don’t even think about going back in the water!” I said as I helped him to sit up against the back of the boat.

“Don’t worry about that Ivy, I’m not going anywhere. Not for now at least.”

            I made my way to the cabin to get orange juice from the fridge.  As I headed back with Caleb’s juice, the sea seemed a little choppy, at least compared to just a few minutes ago.  I didn’t think much of it and sat down next to Caleb. 

“Thanks baby.” Caleb said as he took the glass of juice and drank the whole glass in one gulp.

“Ok now tell me what happened please?”

“It was the same singing I heard in Athens and Kos. But this time there was something else.”

“You heard singing underwater?  I was underwater and didn’t hear anything. ”

“Yes, when I dove in, I started swimming around and then out of nowhere I heard it reverberating through the water.  It was like a dream.  Then I saw her, and she reached out and took my hand.”

“What?  You saw her?  And she took your hand?  Have you seen her before? What did she look like?” I was dumfounded at this news. 

“Yes and then I woke here with you.  I haven’t seen her before, she had long wavy dark hair with deep brown eyes and was wearing a dark blue robe.”

“So you’re having delusions about a dark hired mysterious woman?  Who sings to you? Underwater? You know how crazy this sounds Caleb?  I knew you should have seen a doctor before we left.  Now we are stuck out here with no civilization in sight.”

“We can go back to Pserimos now as we planned.  There should be a doctor there.”

“How can you be so calm about all this? You mean that little island that we just passed? You need a psychiatrist, not some random doctor on a little island.  Let’s go back to Kos.”

“Well we’ll try their first ok? That’s the closest harbor to us right now and its getting late.  If we can’t find a doctor there we’ll go back to Kos first thing tomorrow.”

“I don’t know Caleb. You need help.”  I said looking over at him staring at the sky to the east.

“There is a storm coming in.  It’s not safe here, we need to try to get back to Pserimos right away.” Caleb said as I followed his gaze.

“Just great.  That storm looks to be headed towards Pserimos, how are we going to reach the harbor in time.” I said. 

“Let’s get going, I’ll start the engine and you tie up the sails and make sure everything is secured below deck.”