I woke up with a sister sleeping on each shoulder, supple breasts across my chest, holding hands, legs across mine. I extricated myself carefully so as not to wake my companions. I watched as they searched for each other in their sleep. First their hands touched, then they moved together until their noses, breasts and pelvises touched, with their legs entwined. I could imagine them as twins doing the same thing in the womb. They have probably done this since Via was born.
I left them and walked down the beach towards that break in the waves I noticed the other day. Once I was even with it, I started wading toward the break. I jumped in and swam across a narrow channel to get to the sandbar. There on the edge of the sandbar was a dark shape, maybe a ship, but definitely not a rock.
It was an odd shape though. Most ships are twenty-five to thirty percent as wide as they are long. This one is almost fifty percent, which made it very squat looking from the hull.
I dove in and swam under it. There was an open hatch with a barrel like the one we found, bumping around as it floated. The barrels the ladies found intermittently were probably from this ship. Removing the barrel was a simple matter of rolling it out. I watched as it floated to the surface. Then I reached up to find the inside of the hatch and pull myself up. It was pitch black, and surprisingly dry.
The air felt stale as though it had been there a long time. I boosted myself higher, sat on the edge of the hatch and felt around. I felt what I thought were barrels of different sizes and weights as I moved them with one hand. There were casks, kegs, and crates as well. I took a deep breath and went back under.
I looked down and saw that the main mast was stuck in the sand and created the odd angle of the hull's resting place against the sandbar. I easily swam to the surface and located the floating barrel. I started to swim towards it, but I wasn't getting any closer.
That's when I noticed how fast I was moving, not towards the barrel, but further out to sea. I turned away from the barrel and swam towards shore but wasn't making any progress. In fact, I was still going away from the beach.
I rolled over to float, rest, and think about my situation. Then it hit me, rip current. I tried to remember what my dad told me: rip current is like a river within the ocean. It happens when the tide is coming in and the outgoing water gets trapped behind a coral reef or sandbar and finds a notch that releases it.
That's all well and good I thought, but how do I get out of it? My dad said you can't fight it, just swim parallel to the beach until you find the edge. I looked under me and saw a deep underwater ravine heading out to sea. This is probably adding to the surge I was feeling. I looked around, located the outline of the ship, and started swimming as my father told me. I was still heading out, but the force was decreasing.
After I passed the outline there was no more pressure on my side. I turned and headed in. As I swam, I tried to remember what else he said about beach currents. There are rip currents, otherwise known as rip tides, and undertow. They were created by a buildup of water and released by a notch in the bottom. The difference was the direction of the notch, and where the full force was felt. Rip currents occurred on the surface and were made by notches parallel to the obstruction. The undertow force was along the bottom caused by a notch going perpendicular to the beach.
At this particular place both of those situations existed. That narrow channel I crossed emptied into that deep notch. This created an extremely dangerous double whammy; one I dare not forget.
I finally reached a place I could stand and waded in the rest of the way. I sat down with my arms wrapped around my legs and rested my head on my knees as soon as I reached dry land. I was too tired to do much else.
It wasn't long before Mia and Via ran up and asked if I was alright.
