"Diver Dan"

The diver stepped heavily across the sea floor, littered with colorful boulders about the size of one of his booted feet. Gravity weighed him down, but it wasn’t gravity that compelled him to return again and again to the sea floor: it was the majesty of it all.

Brilliant green ferns and tall seagrasses vied for space with purple brain sponges and orange-pink corals of all shapes and sizes. In and out of the various nooks and crannies darted fish of every kind: sponges and sea stars, urchins and worms, angelfish and rays, shrimp, snails, lobster and octopi, more varieties of life swam in an acre of reef than flew through the skies of the state of Texas.

All of them regarded the diver in his matt black wetsuit with a mixture of awe and caution. The only threat he seemed to present was the persistent rising plume of bubbles, which the faster fish swam up to and tested, then swam away from just as fast.

The diver marveled at their speed, for he was bound to the sea floor by the mass of his gear and the added lead weights around his belt. His only means of movement was the slow plodding of his heavy metal-clad boots, which dug into the stones of the sea floor, finding some traction, yet pushing aside the smaller stones that gave him no purchase.

The fish posed no danger to him, though he stayed aware of the pair of rays that circled in the distance, waiting for him to leave their spawning beds. The diver also kept a watchful eye out for the larger Portuguese Man-o-War, with electrified tentacles so dangerous they were also nicknamed “the Floating Terror.” But they weren’t too much of a threat through the protection of his thick rubbery suit.

There was only one creature that really posed a threat to the diver: a Great White. The biggest shark, the massive Whale Shark, were actually quite docile and friendly. Humans weren’t their type of prey, which mostly consisted of plankton and fish eggs, despite being the size of a small bus. Hammerheads and Bullnoses weren’t big enough to brave an attack on a diver, something that was obviously not fish-like, and they usually kept a respectful distance.

But a Great White knew no such fear. They attacked and killed almost anything that floated, from fish and dolphins up to calving whales. Their favorite meal was an elephant seal, but they basically ate anything that would fit in their mouths.

And at this moment, there was a Great White swimming towards the diver, thinking he’d fit in his mouth just fine.

The shark swam slowly up from behind his prey, using an intervening wall of thick kelp and sea grass to mask its approach. Its nose was sensitive enough to detect blood in the water from miles away, and though he couldn’t detect any blood – not yet, anyway – the shark definitely thought of the black shape as prey. Divers in their wet suits with flippers on their feet looked quite a lot like seals. And this particular shark hadn’t had a good seal meal in weeks.

The diver was unaware that the shark was stalking him, and would have been an easy target if it weren’t for the warning the other nearby fish gave him. It was their sudden evacuation from the area that alerted the diver. He could tell there was nothing dangerous in front of him; he quickly realized the threat must be from behind. As he began to swivel his head around, he reached for his only weapon, a steel dagger strapped to his thigh.

He held it up chest high as he turned just in time to catch sight of the Great White, swimming slowly but inexorably towards him. Its dinner-plate-sized eyes were as black as coal. The diver recalled a story of a shark attack where the survivor described the shark’s face as grinning and its eyes as lifeless. The diver wasn’t sure about the accuracy of the story, but this particular shark’s eyes seemed full of life, and appeared ready to enjoy making him its next tasty meal.

The diver did his best to dodge out of the way of the shark’s lunging attack, but the tail caught him on the shoulder and sent him sprawling to the sea floor, sending up swirls of dirt and detritus, masking the shark’s departure. The diver struggled to his feet, huffing hard as his lungs struggled to feed his muscles enough oxygen to get him back on his feet. The long hose that kept him supplied with air had a companion umbilical line that was strong enough for the diver to grab hold of and haul himself upright, and his legs did the rest.

But the cloud of muck that his efforts stirred up blinded him temporarily from the shark’s location. Where was it? Where did it go?

Just then, a flicker of movement off to his left caught the diver’s eye. He lunged forward with all the courage he could muster, just far enough to catch the approaching shark on the edge of its long snout. The pain caused the Great White to rear back and away, its tail swishing hard to drive its great bulk into the dark. But this time, the diver was ready for the pulse of water, and he kept his feet.

The wave of water swept much of the cloudy murk aside, and for the first time, both shark and human sighted each other. The shark was old and wise enough to know this was no easy meal, but a prey with a sharp stinger. And the diver knew if he didn’t fight with all his bravery and stamina, he’d never make it back to the surface in one piece.

The Great White swam in a small circle, estimating the best means of attack. The diver stood his ground, knife in one hand, the steel umbilical in the other.

Then, the shark made its move, charging straight forward, trusting that its wide-open mouth would catch its prey and with one gargantuan snap, would end its annoying resistance.

The diver waited, poised to make one thrust with all his might into the nearest black-hole of an eye.

The Great White built up speed, opened its mouth wide, and—

“Danny!” a Father’s voice called from an adjacent room. “Have you cleaned out the fish tank like I asked you?”

The hand around the plastic diver jerked forward, removing him from the near-fatal shark attack launched by the plastic creature in his other hand. “Not yet, Dad!” the boy yelled back.

“Well, quit playing around the with oxygen toys and get that done!”

“Okay, dad! I’ll do it right now!”

Danny released the Diver, whose feet settled once again onto the pea gravel floor of the fish tank, continuing to release bubbles for the hiding fish to breathe. The boy launched the plastic Shark gently in the other direction, where it bounced gently off the glass and came to rest on a brain sponge, its eyes pointing unblinking at the Diver.

Tomorrow, the Shark thought slyly. Tomorrow, I’ll have another chance.