Stung

It was the only way she could think of to escape her family for a day - just one day.

She wasn't ungrateful. It had been an amazing holiday in a stunning place; but to spend all day, every day, for two weeks, with your parents and baby brother... well let’s just say that she was ready for a change; some adventure maybe. Her mum hadn't been happy when Alice had spotted the sign.

"Absolutely not!” said her mum. “Scuba diving is dangerous; there are sharks out there!” She pointed an aimless finger towards the horizon as she followed up with, “What's wrong with snorkelling anyway?"

"I've been snorkelling for two weeks." Alice whined. "It's good fun, but I fancy going deeper - seeing what lives further down."

"I can't imagine anything worse," shuddered her mum. "It's bad enough things nibbling your feet in the shallows."

Alice snorted, "We're not all frightened of our own shadows, mum."

"That's enough, Alice," said her dad, sternly, but with amusement twitching at the corners of his mouth, "Your mum's just worried about you, and rightly so. You are still a child, you know."

Alice rolled her eyes. "It's a tourist activity. With instructors and insurance. I'm seventeen; well above the minimum age for heaven's sake, I don't see what the problem is."

She turned and stalked away, dropping to sulk on a sun-lounger whilst secretly straining to hear the earnest conversation taking place between her parents. Eventually they strolled over to her. "OK, you can go scuba diving," her dad said, "but I'm coming with you."

This was NOT the plan. "Dad, you will hate it!" exclaimed Alice, throwing her arms up into the air. You have barely done more than paddle. You even complain that you have to walk through the pool to get to the pool bar.” 

“Well, that is perfectly understandable,” retorted her dad, defensively, “It’s ridiculous that you can’t get a drink on dry land. Anyway, that’s not the point. We Scuba together or you don’t Scuba. End of argument.”

“Urgh. Fine.”  Alice knew she wasn’t going to get any further and flounced off to the room she shared with her mum. There had been no privacy on this holiday.

For the next couple of days, Alice sulked, whilst her mum and dad did a good job of ignoring her moods; they were very familiar with her teenage tantrums and were determined that the last few days of the holiday would not be ruined. For her part, Alice kept out of their way, spending most of her time at the end of the pier in the deliciously warm water of the Red Sea, snorkelling. Since the first day, she had been dazzled at what she saw just beneath the surface. Her favourites were the Clownfish with their orange and white stripy suits and comical expressions, but she was also mesmerised with the coral in shades of pink, apricot and white, and the alien looking Anemones and Starfish. She was astonished by the enormous variety of fish in such a small area: the stern-looking and hugely colourful Parrotfish with their beak-shaped mouths; the beautifully patterned Angelfish; and the striking shoals of Sergeant Majors. She had kept a safe distance from the terrifying Lionfish and their burnished orange spikes, and also from the Pufferfish which she knew could turn into spiky poisonous balloons within seconds, if they felt threatened.

Now, on the eve of the Scuba Diving trip and the last day of the holiday, her excitement was building at the thought of what she might discover, away from the coastline and a little deeper down. She would love to see Turtles and Reef Sharks, and maybe even a Moray Eel, and was eager to experience whole shoals of fish out on the reef.

She awoke at 5.30am, dressed quickly and picked up the bag she had packed the night before. Knocking quietly, so as not to wake her mum, she opened the door to the adjoining room and crept over to her dad’s bed. As she shook him, he groaned. “Come on Dad, we have to be at the beach by six.”

“I can’t do it love, I’ve been up all night. I must have eaten something dodgy.” He looked terrible, but Alice could only feel fury. She had been looking forward to this for days and now her dad was going to spoil it; ‘I bet he isn’t even ill’ she thought.

Unable to keep her temper in check, she blurted out, “I don’t believe you! You never wanted to do it and you didn’t want me to do it either. It’s not fair!”

By now, tears of disappointment were streaming down her face and her mum, hearing the commotion, had also woken up. “Alice, don’t be so horrible. Your dad wouldn’t do that to you, he knows how much you have been looking forward to it. Apologise right now! There will be other opportunities to go scuba diving.”

As her dad rushed once more to the bathroom, Alice turned to her mum, “I don’t want to wait for another opportunity, I want to go now. It’s booked and I’m going!” She heard her mum shout her name, but whatever she was going to say, Alice didn’t hear it. She ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her and raced down the hallway.

Once outside, she slowed down and gathered herself. She was ashamed of how she had spoken to her parents, especially her dad who was obviously feeling awful, but she felt like today was her one opportunity to do this, and she was determined not to be stopped. She pulled out her phone and sent a brief note to her mum. ‘I’m sorry I shouted, but I need to do this.’

By the time she arrived at the beach she was calm again. As she waited, she watched the sunrise; the sky changing from pink to apricot to tangerine in front of her eyes whilst the breeze caressed her skin gently and the warm sea lapped over her toes, and by the time the instructor had opened up the hut, the air was deliciously warm. She remained seated on her rock, allowing all the other people to register before her, until eventually she heard the soft pad of feet on the damp sand, coming to a halt behind her and his voice saying her name.

“Alice?” he questioned, “are you alone?” She felt a flush of warmth rising up her neck to reach her cheeks. She had seen Ahmed working a few days ago. He had turned and held her eye, smiling at her shyly, and they had exchange a few glances and hellos since. He was the main reason that she wanted to go scuba diving – without her dad.

“My dad isn’t well,” she explained, “but I am old enough to go alone, aren’t I?”

He took in the softly pleading look in her eyes. “Of course,” he said “I will take special care of you.” Alice blushed again, immediately mortified that she was unable to control her obvious attraction for him, but thrilled that she would be spending the next few hours alone with this beautiful young man, rather than her dad.

Sat alone at the front of the boat, Alice felt an incredible lightness and a tingle of excitement rising within her. It was only a taster session, but they had still had to be instructed in how everything worked and also had had to listen to a boring safety talk given by one of the instructors. Alice tried to pay attention, but was distracted by Ahmed, the young instructor who had agreed to take ‘special care’ of her, and was now carrying out safety checks on the equipment at the rear of the boat. In fact, she had been daydreaming about what that ‘special care’ might possibly look like since he had first uttered the words. It would seem that she was developing a bit of a crush on this beautiful, tanned, shirtless man, and once again, she blushed at her own thoughts.

By the time they stopped, it seemed as though they had sailed a long way from shore, and the hotels were mere specks in the distance. As the others crowded to the front of the boat to get kitted out, Alice held back, alarmed at the butterflies in her stomach, not from excitement, but from nerves; she had never really done anything like this before and realised that she didn’t know what to expect. As the crowd dispersed, with the suited divers now jumping, one by one, off the front of the boat, Ahmed approached her, holding out his hand, and led her to the front of the boat. He helped her get into her scuba gear, all the while, repeating the safety information from earlier, hypnotising her with his gentle voice and kind looks, as he reassured her that he would be alongside her the whole time, should she need him.

Alice gulped. This was it. Ahmed jumped first, rising to the surface and beckoning to her whilst treading water. She looked at him, then at the water, only to see what looked like hundreds of white tennis balls floating on the surface. Confused, she turned to ask what they were, and was horrified to be told that they were jellyfish.

“But there are hundreds of them!” she cried, taking a step back from the edge of the boat.

“They cannot hurt you; they are Moon Jellies,” reassured the instructor, and to prove it to her, he made a signal to Ahmed, who picked one up and threw it to him. He caught it and then threw it back in the water, before turning back to Alice. “See, completely safe.” 

Not totally convinced, but not wanting to make a further fool of herself, Alice closed her eyes, held her breath and said a small prayer as she jumped into the sea, crashing beneath the surface before emerging, spluttering, to see Ahmed grinning in front of her and giving her a double thumbs up.

Alice would never forget the first magical moment her mask dipped below the surface. There was an immediate and breathtaking transition from the noisy world above to the silent, weightless wonderland below. Sunlight was breaking through the surface and scattering into shimmering, cathedral-like pillars of shifting blue light, illuminating the brilliant pinks, purples, and yellows of living coral gardens where thousands of tiny, neon fish moved together in perfect, synchronised waves, parting seamlessly as she glided through their world.

As the group swam, side-by-side, towards an ever-expanding turquoise horizon, they watched solitary Reef Sharks hunting in their trademark zig-zag path and gazed in wonder as a whole pod of Bottlenose Dolphins raced towards them, playfully leaping and spinning in the water. Further down, a rare Spotted Eagle Ray was ‘flying’ majestically above the sand bed, and as they grew in confidence the group started to split into pairs and smaller groups.

Alice and Ahmed floated hand-in-hand across a vast sea-grass bed where a family of Green Turtles were busy hunting molluscs; the bobbing heads of a group of garden eels instantly vanishing backward into the sand as they approached; Alice examined vibrant coral formations, colourful fan corals and spiky sea anemones swaying in the current, and Ahmed pointed out a large flatfish camouflaged, as it hovered just above the sand.

Swimming along channels between the coral beds and floating above bottomless chasms, Alice spotted Grouper, Butterflyfish, Triggerfish and Frogfish, their shapes, colours and patterns all memorised from the information board she had studied every day. Vast swarms of tiny orange and pink Goldies raced ahead of them as well as huge shoals of translucent Glassfish that darted, as one, above the coral, their synchronized and shifting shapes reminding her of the starlings at home, in their murmurations above the wheat fields; it truly felt that she was part of another world.

They had been in the water for about ninety minutes when Ahmed signalled that they should start heading back to the boat. Reluctantly, Alice signalled that she understood and Ahmed turned, beckoning, to show the way. As she turned to follow him, Alice noticed an anomaly in the reef, a movement that she couldn’t explain. Pausing, she watched and after a moment she saw it again, a flickering in the shadows underneath the shadowy overhang of a large rock. She moved closer, intrigued, and a second later, there was a flash of movement.

Horrified, Alice felt a sharp stinging sensation on her lower leg and at the same time was confronted with a huge snakelike creature; it’s mouth wide open revealing rows of sharp jagged teeth. She froze in fear as it left its lair and whipped around her, desperately trying to remember the safety advice from earlier.

‘Slow your breathing’, she thought, as she fought with her mouthpiece. As her breathing began to calm, she found that she was able to think more clearly, and as the Moray circled, she tried her hardest to ignore the stinging sensation in her leg and remain completely still, allowing herself to bob with the current like a piece of driftwood. She could vaguely remember snippets of information from the safety briefing: ‘most sea creatures have terrible eye sight… don’t touch… stay calm… allow them space… don’t wave your arms… back off if you can…’

After a few moments, the Eel seemed to be losing interest, its circles becoming wider and wider. Alice tucked her arms in to her sides and began to slowly kick her legs, backing away without taking her eyes off it, until eventually it turned and swam away lazily.

At last, she could breathe and move normally again, and she immediately turned to see where Ahmed was, to signal that she was OK, secretly hoping that he would have been impressed by her handling of the situation. But he was nowhere to be seen. Alice swam in circles, confusion and then panic setting in as she realised that she was alone and had no idea where the boat was. She knew that there couldn’t be much air left in her tank and that she had to get to the surface, where she would at least have a chance of locating a boat.

After taking a few breaths, she thought through the sequence she had been taught, wishing that she had listened more carefully instead of watching the beautiful Ahmed – how foolish she felt now.

Pause at 5 metres – they had only been swimming at a depth of five metres so no need to worry about that; check the depth gauge – checked, she was sitting at 4.5m, a safe depth to ascend from; look up to check your path – she looked up and there was a clear path to the surface; rotate 360 degrees to scan for boats or hazards – she completed a slow spin and there were no obstacles in sight; raise your arm above your head, towards the surface, and ascend slowly.

  As she reached the surface, Alice was suddenly desperate to spit out her mouthpiece and gulp in the fresh air, and as she did, she heard the slow rumbling of a boat engine. A few moments later she was hauled into a fishing boat and surrounded by the faces of the crew, all talking to her in a language she didn’t understand. She was sat amid boxes of fish with the stink of seaweed all around her, and unable to contain her emotions any longer, Alice put her hands over her ears and wept. They were tears of relief, but also anger; Ahmed was supposed to keep her safe, but he left her alone to face that Moray Eel and to find her own way back to safety. 

An hour later, Alice was back on shore, waiting for her parents who had been notified about what had happened. They would be full of ‘told-you-so’s’ no doubt, and more protective than ever when they heard the full story, but Alice had no regrets. As she sat tracing her finger around the intricate pattern that wound around her calf from the jellyfish sting, she felt that she had learned some important life lessons – and she still wanted to Scuba Dive, but next time she would make sure that she had all the training she needed to keep herself safe.