Diving the Mines

The water closed above my head, and I was on my way to 80 feet. The hiss of air escaping my BC filled my ears. Below me the tops of drowned trees stood like the spears of a mer-army, the green light of the depths bathing them in a fey luminosity. The pressure built around me with every inch, and I found myself equalizing, and equalizing again. The gloom increased, and the cold, promised at the surface, was given in full measure. My wrist computer’s depth gage ticked off the feet, 44, 47, 50…and I became aware that a giant was standing on my eyes. I try to exhale through my nose, but no good. I climb for the surface-too fast at first, and then I slow to rise with my bubbles. As I break surface the mask begins to pull away. In my nervousness I had pulled the mask too tight-as though I could keep the depth from getting too close. I loosen the mask, and in my mind I chide myself, this is how people get hurt-my buddies all ask if I’m all right. I signal that I’m okay, and swim back to the drop-off. Once again I dump the air from my BC, and I drop towards the spears again. Equalizing more slowly, I fall into the fey light, the cold returning and intensifying, and between counting the others, 1,2,3…1, 2,3… I glance at my depth gage. 60 feet, then 61…65…70. We level off for a moment. They’re all there around me, and again, we head down. 75, 77, 79-80. I have arrived, and though I am with three others, I am alone, 80 feet below, trees on all sides. It’s eternal twilight around me-in the forest of the mer-army, the surface sky rippling and blowing above. Exultantly we signal "OK" to one another, and proceed to explore. Our course leads up a gentle slope- this is a bounce dive, with the deepest part of the dive at first, then gradually ending in shallower depths. The floor is sandy, with last year’s autumn leaves in puffs and blows by the trees. The effect is Halloween-like, and at the moment, cold water down my spine has nothing to do with the water in my suit. We find ourselves moving closer together, like hikers will in a forest. There is safety in numbers from the unknown. Swimming through the branches of the trees draws the ancient simian forth, and I use my hands to pull me through the sunken canopy like a strange sort of aquatic ape. Exulting in the conquest of gravity, we all dart through the trees with elaborate swoops and twists.

An underwater meadow opens before us-there’s a platform erected at 40 feet. We swing out of the trees and onto the platform. Only the bubbles escaping from our regulators break the silence. The light is different here: from fey twilight to a green gold diffusion, as though the light comes from everywhere and nowhere. We three apes look about us, now the forest is behind us, all is clear ahead. Evolving momentarily into men again, we stand upon the platform, the surface 40 feet above, and seek our next course.