Luna and Esme were already ahead of us in the other canoe. I pulled my oar firmly through the waves. At least, so far, it was calm.
Instead of staring at the back of Adri’s head while we rowed, I looked into the water on either side of the boat. We were paddling over a coral reef: a bustling city with strangely shaped buildings made of coral, sponges, and anemone. There were large blue, green, orange, and yellow brain corals, looking like the organ after which they were named. Starburst corals spread next to green and gold elkhorns, mixed with fire corals that were dangerous to the touch. There were sweeping sea fans as delicate as lace: a wonderland of shades, patterns, and textures. 141
“Look, Adri!” I squealed.
“Uh-huh.” He kept on paddling; barely glancing over the side of the canoe.
I rolled my eyes. His loss.
The reef was full of life. Silver dollars, angelfish and spotted drum darted past beaked parrotfish cleaning the coral like cows grazing in a field. Iridescent squid with bulging eyes moved backward and forward, their long tentacles sweeping the water. Shimmering, crusted, horned and feathery seahorses hid among the seagrass, using their curled tails to zoom past queen conchs, flamingo-tongued snails, and other slow-going crustaceans. A green moray eel lurked in its dark hollow, while a hawksbill turtle glided by, surfing an underwater current.
As we moved further out, I could see a razor-toothed barracuda hunting in the depths, as silver-striped wahoo and red snapper tried to protect their young.
A slow-moving shadow passed in the distance: a whale shark foraging for food.
I rowed in a trance: staring at the world beneath us. I could see Adri watching it all now too, his tension seeping away into the water. 142
In my mind’s eye I went back to being with Da, scuba-diving at Buccoo Reef in Tobago, an island miles away from this one. I learned that coral reefs were home to endangered species, a nesting ground for animals, and one of the world’s most important ecosystems. Da told me then about the famous fringe reefs of Bonaire: one of the oldest marine reserves in the world. There was even a Foundation, he said, to protect the reef from pollution, hurricanes, and rising sea temperatures that put coral reefs around the world in danger.
Da had promised to bring me here someday. Now here I was … I couldn’t imagine all the life and beauty beneath me, destroyed.
“Storm ahead!” Adri warned.
Dark clouds were forming in the direction that Luna and Esme had gone. I could barely see their canoe.
“Wait. What is that?” I wondered.
Far beyond them, there was a bright light. What was it: a lighthouse?
Adri grabbed his binoculars and shouted, “The door!”
So that was it. Our way out. 143
Adri’s jaw clenched. He picked up the pace, paddling hard.
“Come on!” I agreed, digging in despite my aching arms.
The wind picked up around us. I glanced at my wristband. Thirty minutes left, but we were so far away. We needed to get there as soon as possible.
I gave the reef one last look. Then I spotted it: something struggling in the water. It was a baby manta ray, caught in a discarded piece of netting that had drifted onto the reef. Its flat body and triangular wings flapped and struggled, but it was trapped.
I knew that manta rays had to keep swimming to breathe. Without that, they would die.
“Adri, stop!” I called out, dropping my oar into the canoe.
I rummaged around in my pack.
“What are you doing?” he yelled over his shoulder.
“That baby ray,” I pointed. “It needs help!”
“Are you crazy?” he stared at me with wild eyes; trying to keep the boat from twisting off course.
The wind was lashing the waves now. The air was dark and wet. The storm was almost upon us.
“We have to keep going!” Adri pulled his oar on 144both sides, forcing the canoe forward.
There was no time to argue. Finally, I found it in the pack: a folded knife. I clicked it open. It was sharp. I knew better than to jump into the ocean headfirst. I could hit something and get injured. Instead, I slipped off the side of the boat, ignoring Adri’s “What are you doing?”
I gasped. It was shockingly cold and deeper than it looked. The wind whistled as the waves picked up. I could hear Adri yelling in the background, but I couldn’t hear the words. I felt a stab of regret. Would he wait for me or move on? Could he make it out to the door on his own?
I shook all over. If he left, maybe Luna and Esme would see that something was wrong. Maybe they would come back to get me. In any case, time was running out.
I took a deep breath and dove under the water.
It was more peaceful below the surface, even though the currents were strong. I swam over to the ray as fast as I could. It was barely moving now. I cut into the net with the knife, taking care not to slice the ray’s body. Its skin felt smooth and alien against my hand. I tried to remember if manta rays 145had venomous stings in their tails. If so, I was in trouble.
Thankfully, the ray didn’t sting me. With one more yank of the knife, it was free.
It sped away immediately, back into the depths of the reef, without so much as a thank you … I swam desperately for air. As soon as I broke the surface, I spun around to look for the canoe.
“Adri!” I screamed desperately.
Yes! There he was, not far away, rowing hard to bridge the space between us.
The wind whipped and wailed around me, dashing waves into my face. I tried swimming back to the canoe, but the sea was too strong. I tread water, trying not to go under.
“Hold on!” Adri rowed like a madman toward me; his arms straining.
It took me a second to realise that he was staring at something behind me.
I turned to see two fins cutting through the waves in the distance, heading in my direction.
Sharks. That was all I had time to think before I was swimming at top-speed toward the boat. The current was so strong that moving against it felt like 146pushing against a wall. But it was that or be fish-food.
I fought until my arms, legs and lungs screamed.
I looked up desperately, sucking in air. Thankfully, Adri was close.
“Grab this!” He stretched one of the oars toward me.
The fins moved with such force, I could see how big they really were. I reached for the oar, grazing it with my fingertips. The fins closed in. Thunder cracked and rain roared down.
Perfect time for a storm.
“Come on!” Adri screamed, reaching the oar out as far as he could.
Without warning, a huge swell rose up behind him and swamped us both, overturning the canoe.
I spun underwater, holding my breath. The flipping canoe barely missed my head. I had no idea where Adri was.
I tried to accept death peacefully, but my body fought to live.
When I resurfaced, by some miracle, Adri was near me in the water and we were only a short way from the canoe.
“The sharks!” I gasped, trying not to make a splash.
“Come on.” Adri grabbed my arm and started 147gliding toward the canoe.
Touching its wooden shell wasn’t much comfort. We still had to flip it over and get in. I looked around, scanning the water for any sign of the returning fins. So far, there was nothing, but they could be below us. My heart stuck in my throat.
“Come on! Together!” Adri urged me. “One, two, three, push!”
We tried to push the canoe right way up, but it didn’t budge. There was nothing to brace our feet against to get enough force.
“Push!”
Adri and I tried again, lifting the side of the canoe slightly out of the water.
“Come on,” he urged, “it’s working!”
Just then, on the other side of the canoe, the two fins re-appeared. And with them came tens more. I choked. A frenzy of sharks? Why? A glimmer of hope slipped in. Maybe they were dolphins. I had heard of wild dolphins rescuing humans.
“No!” Adri groaned.
Another huge swell was coming toward us. Before we could move, we were swamped by the wave. I tumbled under the water again, trying to hold my 148breath until I got to the surface. I couldn’t see Adri. Where was he? I panicked. The wave kept tumbling me over. My chest hurt. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer. The last bit of air leaked out of my lungs. Darkness crept in.
Suddenly, I felt myself being lifted from below. I broke the surface, coughing. Adri was next to me, gulping down air. We looked down. Giant shadows swirled beneath us, keeping us afloat as the storm raged.
The creatures around us weren’t sharks or dolphins. They were giant manta rays.
We watched in awe as they circled us and the overturned canoe. Each ray was flat and wide, like an open kite, but the biggest kites we had ever seen. Some of them were up to four times our length, from one wing tip to the other. Their skin was black, grey, and smooth as a wetsuit, with white accents and a subtle sheen. Their wing-like fins pulsed as they glided underwater; some near the surface; others, deeper. At the front of their heads were two flexible prongs like horns, between which they had wide mouths used to suck in tiny creatures for food. They each had two eyes, one on either side of their heads. 149Two of the largest rays swam near us. They watched us and we watched them.
“Stay still,” I told Adri under my breath.
The rays stared at us. What they were thinking, I couldn’t tell. Long thin tails stretched out behind them like barbs.
“Are we in trouble?” Adri muttered.
I shook my head.
Mobula rays, as they were called, didn’t harm humans. In fact, we harmed them. They were endangered: killed for their meat, fins, and grills; used in dishes and medicines.
Thankfully, these rays were still alive. They swam slowly, gracefully, always moving, the tip of their wings breaking the surface like fins. As they turned, their white and speckled undersides flashed in the water. I could see the lines of their life-sustaining gills. They orbited the canoe like planets.
Adri looked at me with a smile, “Okay, manta-whisperer …What now?”
I laughed in relief. “I have no idea.”
“Think we can ride them?” Adri asked.
“No.” I shook my head.
I knew that riding manta rays could injure both 150them and us. So that wasn’t an option.
The storm began to die down. As if in answer, two of the largest rays swam under the canoe and flipped it right side up. One of them gave Adri a gentle boost as he climbed into the canoe. He held it steady while I climbed in.
“Look!” Adri warned.
Before we could start rowing, two massive rays came on either side of the canoe, and an even larger one swam up behind. All the rays joined in formation around them, looking like giant wings. The canoe floated vertically like a pencil, between them. The rays waited until we held on to its wooden sides with both hands. Then they took off, moving the smooth wooden canoe forward.
They swam us through the end of the storm.
Being propelled by rays all around us, swimming at top speed, was like jet-skiing, windsurfing and water-skiing, all at once. I held on for dear life to the canoe. The sea spray blew hard in my face. I squeezed my eyes closed.
“Whoo-hooooo!”
That was Adri, screaming for joy.
I couldn’t stop laughing. 151
When we slowed to a stop, I cracked open my eyes.
Luna and Esme were in front of us, their faces creased with fear. They were seated in front of a door like a golden archway in the sea, covered with carvings of waves and swimming dragons.
The door was cracked open slightly on one side. Through it, came the smell of dry, hot sand.
“Thank God,” Esme wept.
Luna’s eyes were like saucers as she stared from the sea of manta rays to us.
“It’s okay,” I explained, “They’re with us.”
“You mean, we’re with them,” Adri grinned.
“We tried coming back to get you,” Esme trembled, looking around at the swirling carpet of rays. “But the storm kept pushing us back …”
“We thought you were gone for sure.” Luna’s voice cracked.
I looked at Adri.
For a second, his eyes were darker than usual. “We nearly were.”
“It’s okay Lu,” I exhaled. “We’re here now.”
“But what …?” Esme’s voice shook even more as she took in the sea of rays moving around us in their slow, sacred dance. 152
Luna wheezed: “How?”
“Ask her,” Adri nodded at me.
“What did I do?” I protested.
Just then, something small jumped into the air above our canoe, landing with a splash on the other side.
It was the baby manta ray I’d helped on the reef!
Somehow, it had brought its pod to help us.
“Thank you!” I shouted, raising my arms as high as I could.
It flipped into the air as if to say, “You’re welcome!”
Right then, all the rays began leaping into the air and back into the water, in a series of joyful jetés.
Suddenly, we were all shouting “Thank you!”
We giggled in the spray and splash of the mantas wide, lifted wings. The giant rays flew back and forth over us, in a stunning oceanic ballet.
Our wristbands beeped. Time was almost up.
“We have to go,” Luna said sadly.
The arched door bordered with long, finned, sea dragons, was closing.
The baby manta swam between our canoes, as its family continued to soar.
I ran my fingers gently along its back. 153
“Thank you,” I whispered.
Maybe, someday, we would meet again.
We paddled quickly to the door, held on to the arch, and climbed out of the canoes. When we looked back, the rays were racing away. We slipped through just in time.