Paradise on Earth

Scuba Diving

Once we picnicking everyone else up from the cut we drove back to the marsh where we found Scooter Grubbs' sunken boat. We sit around as me and Kie check the pressure in the tanks B got. "This is empty. You took empty tanks?" Kie asks him frustrated which is understandable. We've checked three of the four tanks and all of them have been empty. John B just shrugs at her. Only he would steal tanks and not check them first, maybe JJ.

"Okay, this one's a quarter full." I sigh tapping the gauge to see if it would move any farther, which of coarse it doesn't.  "It's enough for one of us."

"Love it when a plan comes together." Pope says sarcastically kicking his feet up on the steering wheel.

"Does anybody know how to dive?" Kie asks shoving the empty tanks back into the duffel bag. When she looks up everyone turns away as if they didn't hear her. "Anybody?"

"It's kind of a Kook sport." JJ points out scratching the back of his neck.

"I...read about it." Pope tries.

"Great, Pope read about it, so someone's gonna die." Kiara sighs.

"Great plan JJ." I say pushing myself off the ground and going to sit next to Kie on the edge of the boat.

"Look, y-you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?" He responds acting it out for us. Look I've personally never been scuba diving but I'm 100% sure it's more complicated than that.

"If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood, and you get the bends." Pope points out nonchalantly.

"Bends like, bend over and..." JJ bends over and was surly about to do something gross but Pope cuts him off.

"The bends kill you."

"Right."

"I can... I can dive." B says unsurely.

"You can dive. I'm cool with that." JJ claps getting the equipment ready for him.

"Since when can you dive?" I ask looking across Kiara at him.

"I'll do it. It's fine." He shrugs.

"Let me do some calculations real quick." Pope says grabbing a pen and paper and getting to work. JJ and B crowding around him. "That boat's about 30 feet down. Okay. So it'll take 25 minutes at that depth."

"Twenty-five." John B repeats trying to retain the information. Kie nudges me and takes off her shirt standing at the edge of the boat. I take off my shirt and shorts before going to stand with her.

"Which means you need to make your safety stop at about... ten feet." Pope finishes. I guess that's what we were waiting on because after that Kie jumped in and I followed her. I helped her measure ten feet down the bowline chain so we could tie her shirt to it and we came back up.

"We tied my T-shirt to the chain about ten feet down." She tells that boys as we swam back to the boat. The boys helped us get back aboard. "It's where you need to do your safety stop."

"Cool." John B thanks putting the tank on his back and the mask on top of his head.

"Keep an eye on this." Pope says grabbing the gauge that was hanging by John B's legs. "You need to make sure you have enough air to decompress."

"How much does he need?" I ask ringing out my hair.

"Unclear." He admits to me before turning back to him. "Breathe as little as possible."

"Zen. Think Zen, you know?" JJ says pretending to breath through a mask, taking shallow breaths. I chuckle and lightly push him over.

"Yeah. Got it." B nods yet his feet stay planted. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was afraid. Probably of getting the bends.