By midday the weather had become perfect. A gentle wind pushed the boat across the water. Clouds drifted lazily overhead.
Claire sat on a small pillow, eating her second sandwich. Her mind was on crab chili oil. Right now, she wished she had some because she wanted to dip some bread in it. Not the white bread she was eating, but sourdough. Because she had been in a hurry when she left home that morning, she had not taken any with her.
She had never been much of a chili crab curry eater. Not even once in her life had Claire craved crab chili oil. She couldn’t claim her new tastes were related to pregnancy cravings. When she toured the fish market yesterday, she had felt the urge to throw up a few times.
So, the conclusion she had come to was that this was related to the Driswen crabs. The taste was addictive.
Her eyes traveled to the gold-plated toilet and she sighed. "Maybe treasure hunting is ninety percent disappointment and ten percent tetanus." Claire wondered how private salvage companies made a living.
She was about to take another bite of the sandwich, but the gull, which refused to go away, planted itself in front of her. It clearly had its eyes on her late breakfast. They had shared the first sandwich, and it expected the same treatment.
Claire sighed and gave it up. "You are the worst breakfast guest I have ever had," she said to the gull.
The pearl started heating up.
Claire rose quickly, "Now we are talking. That’s more like it."
She sensed something right where she was. Quickly, she dove into the water for a third time that day. This time, Claire didn’t use the diving mask because she wanted to practice holding her breath underwater.
Ten seconds passed. Then thirty. Then a minute.
Strangely, her lungs didn’t burn. The warmth of the pearl seemed to be coursing through her lungs. Breathing felt...easy. Claire blinked and accidentally inhaled. Water rushed into her mouth. She waited for the choking, but nothing happened.
Instead, cool water floated out of her mouth and her breathing remained natural.
"What was that?" she mumbled. Unfortunately, underwater speech sounded mostly like an angry blender.
Experimenting, she inhaled again. It was perfect. Then she sped forward and discovered her speed had doubled. Claire swam so fast that she scared a school of fish.
Claire swam down through shafts of sunlight, past a school of silver fish. She swam past an elderly sea turtle that looked like it had been bored of everything for centuries.
The pearl burned again and Claire refused to get excited. This time, she would only celebrate after confirming that she had got her hands on a real treasure.
She searched among rocks and coral until she finally spotted a large object wedged inside a cave. Her eyes widened. It looked huge and metallic. Her mind flashed back to the safe. Claire imagined herself kicking her excitement down and stomping on it until it couldn’t rise again.
She swam around what looked like a tail and then tied a rope around it. Claire pulled, struggling to free it while swimming upward. Finally, she hauled it into daylight, on her boat.
Only under the bright sunlight did she discover that she had uncovered...a giant bronze statue of a fish!
Not a golden fish.
Not a fish with rubies or diamonds in the eye sockets.
Just a fish.
A very expensive fish-shaped lawn ornament. Someone, at some point, thought it was wise to place this bronze fish in their compound for display!
The realization somehow made it worse.
Claire sighed in disappointment.
Even the gull seemed embarrassed.
So far, her treasure hunt had accumulated one toilet, one safe full of useless casino tokens and one ugly bronze fish. Her boat looked like the world’s strangest garage sale.
"Lovely pearl, are you on a break today?" Claire whispered, pinching the pearl between two fingers. "Or am I too greedy for quick gains?"
Claire also wondered if she would have found treasures more easily in Driswen as compared to here.
Then she felt it. A gentle warmth.
Not hot, not dramatic. A pleasant warmth, like a cup of tea on a cold morning.
"Again!?" She murmured in shock.
The feeling was coming from down below, in the same place where she had been. Claire took a deep breath and dove again, following the direction of the warmth. This time there was nothing dramatically shiny. No mysterious shadows. No imaginary pirate ships. Just a sandy patch between coral reefs.
Claire brushed away the sand, then smiled. "Oh."
She had not found some kind of treasure, but a hoard of beautiful shells. Hundreds of them gathered in one place like precious porcelain on a collector’s shelf. A range of colors like pink, blue, and even two golden ones that were bigger than her head.
These were the sort of shells craftsmen polished into exquisite jewelry. The kind collectors paid fortunes for. They shimmered beneath the water like scattered jewels.
Claire swam back to the boat and returned with a net. She carefully gathered them into the net and took them back to the boat.
"Thank you," she whispered, touching the pearl.
The pearl must have been pleased with itself because it gave off a comforting warmth, followed by that familiar warmth when it sensed treasure.
Claire dove again. This time, she spotted a cluster of oysters underwater. Lots of them, in different sizes. Her mood improved significantly. She collected several and returned to the boat.
Beneath the afternoon sun, she opened her bag, searching for her third sandwich. Claire also opened a bottle of milk and took a big sip. Her breakfast had not filled her up.
She took a bite of her sandwich and pried open the first oyster.
Nothing.
Second oyster.
Nothing.
The third oyster was also empty. On the fourth oyster, Claire froze. Inside was a small white pearl.
"Oh," she squeaked. It was not precious, but it was the first time in her life that this was happening to her. Claire’s heart pounded with excitement, each beat racing faster as anticipation surged through her.