jburke's Page

Thanks you for inviting me to the group. I'm working on my first novel and busy with a writers group in Eugene, and a class at LCC.

I would like to work with others in CG to create a group to read and critique each others work.

This is the first part of the first chapter- what do you think.

James

Kelly’s Reef
CHAPTER 1- Meeting Igor.

Igor was lurking out there, the monster waiting in the dark. Luna, fully potent tonight, was drawing it out to hunt. Kelly’s devil spawn knew I was coming. I knew it waited. We had built a bond over the past year, but it was never clear who was the Alpha. The tides drawn by the moon teased it into feeding, just as they pulled me back to Kelly’s reef. It expected to be fed. Tonight its meal would be Joanie and Vienna sausages. Tonight would also be the end of normal pregnancies on the planet. Kelly would begin her killing spree.

“The suspense is killing me. Won’t you at least give me a hint?” pleaded Joanie, running a finger across Charlie’s cheek.

“Uh…Ah… I can’t,” he stammered.

This was her final test- meeting Igor. If she survived, Charlie and I would tattoo dolphins on her leg. She would forever be one of us- a same day, same ocean diver. First though, would be her encounter with Igor. She knew we had a special dive planned, but didn’t have a clue about Igor or what to expect.
Joanie, Charlie and I arrived on the dive site in time to watch the sunset kiss the night. At the equator, the moment the sun clears the horizon there’s a brief and subtle green flash. I felt a collective intake of breath from the three of us at that moment.

Dinner had been Sashimi sliced off the flank of a fresh caught, yellow tail tuna, dipped raw into soy sauce and wasabi- a hot, green, Japanese horseradish. A natural antihistamine, it clears the sinuses - a plus just before a dive. Admittedly, raw fish with horseradish is an acquired taste, but the way Joanie wolfed it down, I knew she’d become a connoisseur.

There was a silky, quiet breeze carrying the tangy odor of the ocean gently across the boat. A faint suggestion of bougainvillea blossom drifted from the distant shore and mixed with the pungency of salt air. I was excited. It was time. Igor waited.

The silence either spooked or soothed. We were at absolute ebb tide and neither the sounds of waves on the beach two miles distant, traffic sounds, telephones, pagers, nor civilization intruded on our solitude. Sounds were swallowed into the ocean’s darkness. Crisp metallic echoes of our movements as we assembled the dive gear were painfully obnoxious against such calming quiet. By design, consent, or unspoken command, the three of us moved with Zen grace as we prepared our dive gear.

India ink and mirror smooth, the sea reflected the perfect globe of the full moon overhead. To the un-initiated, inches below the ink awaited Jaws, Captain Nemo’s giant squid, and every boogeyman known to mankind. Night diving brings forth demons. It can also open a new universe. A novitiate either enters an altered state of consciousness with the ocean or never faces those unspoken fears. I could never skydive or bungee jump, so I understood the fears faced when stepping into the abyss, expecting to be instantly devoured.

In the distance, a spinner dolphin breached; her splash emphasized the dark, quiet mood the three of us shared. I envied her grace and intelligence. I wondered if she was getting ready to echo Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- “Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish.” Considering the daily encounters I have with the human race, I can easily believe dolphins have superior intellect.

“I’ll go set the anchor,” Charlie said, breaking the reverie as he slid smoothly over the side without a splash. He was one with the ocean- clumsy and awkward on land in the company of other humans, yet in perfect harmony with tide, salt, and fish.

For years practicing medicine, I had always made a note of a patient undergoing a routine physical that “HEENT normal, no gill slits observed.” It was my usual short hand for an exam where Head, Ears, Eyes, Nose and Throat were all normal. I always added the quip about gill slits to see if anyone ever read this stuff. Nobody does, but with Charlie, I sometimes wondered if there weren’t gills under the layered freckles on his neck.

I leaned over the rail and handed him his video system, watched as the lights came on and he sank onto the reef. The water iridized green during his descent the sixty feet to the sandy bottom.

“Ok! Final check. Weight good, air on, pressure 3000 pounds, computer on.” I went through the standard litany of a pre-dive check. Joanie gave me the OK sign that I returned. “Let’s go see the most amazing sight of your life.”
Since I’d taught her to dive, Joanie had proven herself to be a cautious, conservative diver. Nothing else about her was cautious or conservative, especially the lime-green thong bikini she was wearing. It matched her key-lime pie eyes.

“Don’t you ever get cold diving naked?” I asked. I gave her my best leer, which probably made me look like a total dork.

“I’m not naked! I’ve got my BCD,” referring to her buoyancy control device- a vest worn to act like a fishes’ swim bladder. It maintains neutral buoyancy while diving. On most divers, it looked like what it is- a chunk of material with stuffed pockets and accessories dangling from multiple loops. On Joanie, it became a fashion statement that would make Armani proud. My dull black, beat up, shorty wetsuit would make the Goodwill proud.

“Besides, this way I know you’ll be keeping your eyes on me, just in case…” She winked. After ten years, my sister-in-law saw through my lecherous antics. Most knew me as a straight-laced, conservative physician. My friends knew my other side.

Admiring her backside in that thong was almost enough to distract me from the beauty of the reef and getting ready to dive safely. At 5’4”, with a pixy cut, blond hairdo and a chassis that would make a Detroit auto designer drool, Joanie carried an air of sensuality that left most men defenseless. I knew the overt sexuality she oozed was an act. The wild and crazy image she portrayed was just a front. She also had a commanding presence, a cool, calm head in a crisis, and she used all of her assets to get the job done. If she couldn’t out think you, she could out flirt you.

Now she had her designs on Charlie. The way she always needed a little more assistance from him when we went diving together. The accidental bumping underwater. The way she’d tutored the math he needed to finish his technical certifications. Making him feel that he had done it all himself- then gushing over him about how smart he was. All by calculated design. The poor lunkhead was clueless. What Joanie didn’t know was that she had already overwhelmed Charlie’s defenses. Or, maybe she did? I suspected Charlie spent all of his waking hours wondering if he had a chance to be part of her life. When he was with me that was all he seemed to focus on.

“You know,” I said, “you keep teasing Charlie like you do, he’s going to burst.”
“Me? Tease Charlie? Why would you say that?” Her wide-eyed mischievous grin gave her away.

“Oh, I don’t know. Bending over in front of him in your butt floss to fix your gear. Reaching across his lap to retrieve your mask. Asking him to make sure your weight belt was on securely… Poor guy almost forgot to turn on his air.” And almost hung himself up on his erection going over the side.

“Well, I refuse to be responsible for any unprofessional, unsafe, or unethical behavior he might, or might not exhibit in my presence,” she giggled. I admit I enjoyed her game as much as she did. And we both knew we could tease, talk and share the sexuality game without risk. When asked what I do for a living, I often tell strangers that I spend my days talking to naked women about sex. As a gynecologist that’s technically true, but it always stops conversation.

“That bikini certainly wouldn’t pass the professional ethics board. And as the self appointed chairman I might have to confiscate it for evidence at your courts marshal,” I kidded her. As a senior medical officer at the Naval Hospital, I actually did serve on several such nonsense boards. “Better yet, loan it to your sister so we can play gruff sea captain and the mermaid some evening.”
“Only if you promise to teach Charlie how to play.” Oh yeah, Charlie’s waiting sixty feet below. Maybe we should go diving?

I spit into my mask and rinsed it with salt water. I then dumped a mask full over my head and felt the jolt as the cold caused the hair on my back to stand up. I zipped up my wetsuit and rolled over the side. Water temperature off the Island remains warm year round, but I was momentarily chilled as water seeped under the rubber skin encasing my torso. Joanie splashed in after me and I wondered how she always seemed to tolerate the chill.

We started our descent down the anchor line. My eyes stung slightly from the salt and my ears immediately felt pressure. I cleared my mask and popped my ears several times in the first twenty feet. Then I extracted my mouthpiece and swished some salt water around my mouth to accommodate to the taste. I tried not to think about fish urine.