Before I Dive Right Into You

The Approach

It all happened on a boat.

A giant cruise ship that served as a small city of five thousand people, stretched so far from aft to forward that the chances of running into someone you know unplanned should have been slim. But the odds were never zero.

And somehow I beat the odds seeing Pilar again.

. . .

The cruise was my coach's idea, one last celebration for making it to the U.S Olympics diving team before I shift my focus to just eating, breathing, diving for the next couple of months. I told her it was weird to go on a cruise by myself, she told me I don't know how to relax and who was I to turn down a paid for lavish cruise trip?

I'd be spending two weeks on the boat, most days at sea with some European stops along the way before circling back to reality. I'd never been on a cruise before, and was taken aback by the sheer size of the boat and how many people crowded the floors. I scrolled through the ship's app to see what there was to do on the first day, and the words AquaSquad caught my eye. Apparently it was a "one-of-a-kind water show"

Come see the best divers and water acrobats amaze you with our stunning light and water show!

I fought back a smirk. Best divers? I wanted to be the judge of that. If my coach were to be upset that I was spending my vacation from diving by watching diving, she didn't have to know.

I sat front and center in front of the small pool that looked to be fifteen feet deep. Bubbles jetted from the bottom and I could see three levels of standard diving boards. All in all a normal diving set up.

Ominous music swelled and the crowd around me hushed. The show started with four pairs of legs heels up appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the pool, breaking into splits in the air. My lips twitched in a smile. I always loved synchronized swimmers. Artistic swimming was one of my favorite Olympics events to watch. Lights started dancing in tune to the music with a fountain show to match. Spotlights appeared showcasing two diving spring boards on each side with male divers posed. My smile grew. The pair did a simple synchronized reverse dive and landed cleanly into the water as the artistic swimmers still danced around the middle of the pool. The spotlights moved up higher to show platform high above the pool. Two female swimmers stood in the back, took a step, folded into a handstand then fell off the board in an elegant dive into the pool. Cheers erupted around me from the stands and I joined.

The divers were good. I couldn't help but use professional judgement, but even then they clearly were good at what they do. It was refreshing to see diving in a show like this, on a boat in the middle of the ocean, entertaining people who might have never seen this before. It was a show performance not a sport, different from my usual day to day and my own relationship with diving.

The entire team, dubbed the AquaSquad, came out of the pool for an introduction, lined up with big smiles and waves.

That was when I saw her. I didn't notice from afar, but there front stage it was clear to me even though I wanted to be wrong. The rest of the show and stage melted away until it was just me staring at the woman in front of me. I'd rather I was delusional, hallucinating, but it was her. Her face was the same, her body, her brown skin, the small Olympics rings tattooed on her left ankle matching mine that was faded from the chlorine and years passed. When the mic came to her for her turn to introduce herself it was confirmed.

"Hi everyone my name is Pilar, I'm from the U.S and fun fact about me I've been diving for thirteen years!"

I knew that. I've also been diving for thirteen years. We started together. I've known Pilar for thirteen years.