Love in Bloom

Bottom Feeders :- It had turned out to be as good a morning as the weather forecast had promised. Olaf's first glance through the porthole on wakening revealed a clear blue sky with barely a wisp of cloud, a sultry heat-mist already forming that made the distant shore ripple while the sea itself remained majestically still, with only the barely perceptible rough-patch marking the reef's closest approach to the surface. They had anchored not long after sunrise, and while Olaf and Henrietta had slept, the Spanish-speaking Captain and Olaf's young safety diver Morris had studied the echo-sonde traces, eaten a light breakfast, and assembled all the equipment neatly on the rear deck ready for the dive. Olaf's camera gear and lights were neatly laid out behind his BCD and wet-suit. By the time he appeared from his cabin, having kissed Henrietta good morning (but, with an effort of will, left it at that) there was nothing more to do but suit-up and explain to Morris exactly what he had in mind.

"A beautiful morning, Morris, don't you think?" he began pleasantly.

"Perfect, I would say. Can I carry anything for you?" he nodded towards Olaf's special gear.

"In a minute, Morris. First, I want to explain what we'll be doing today. The main thing I'm after is shallow-water stuff. General coral landscape, with plenty of assorted fish in the foreground, and maybe you in the background, if that's okay."

"Maybe I should have shaved this morning," Morris smiled, running his hand over his rough chin.

"Don't worry about it," Olaf returned cheerfully, "just make sure you wear a nice colourful wet suit, and your bright yellow fins."

"Do you think we need wet-suits in this water?" Morris inquired doubtfully.

"This is show-business, Morris. Divers are supposed to wear fancy clothes. It's what people expect."

Morris nodded and grinnned.

"Now we're on nitrox, so we're going to have a massive bottom-time if we want to use it. I'm not planning to go below twenty meters, unless I see something interesting. But after I've got the shots I want, I'll be going for a little swim off the reef, west, where it's sandy. I saw a few rays there last week, and a jewfish bigger than you, Morris, so I'd like to have a look around and see if anything interesting shows up. I'd like you to come with me and carry the lights. Is that all right with you?"

"That's what I'm here for."

"I hope you don't get bored."

"I get bored above the water. Under the water, it's never boring!"

"Good." He slipped into his BCD and did-up the straps. "Check the valves and releases for me, will you Morris?"

Professor Malcolm Spiers pressed the remote control to activate the big up-and-over garage door and eased the car in as quietly as he could so as not to waken anybody in the house. As he did this he checked his wristwatch. 2.30 AM! Already!? It was so easy to get carried away when you were setting-up a new observational program, and the seeing had been so good tonight: he had actually removed the photomultiplier array for a while and simply looked through the eyepiece at the planet Jupiter. The colours had been breathtaking. He had been a professional astronomer for more than twenty years now, but it had been so long since he had actually looked through a large telescope with his own eyes that he just couldn't resist the opportunity while they were setting-up the new series on the two computers. Naturally there had been snags and problems and his few moments of self-indulgence had expanded finally into almost an hour. It had given him a chance to look at all of the gas giants that were above his local horizon, and a couple of delicately beautiful galaxies and gaseous nebulae, seeing them by means of light that had started its journey before Christopher Columbus had started his. It had made him feel like a boy again, back in his garden shed in Connecticut, gazing out alone into the majesty of Creation.

As he crept around upstairs, washing and getting ready for bed as quietly as he could, he was still on something of a high. Silently and stealthily, he entered the bedroom without switching on the light and slipped beneath the duvet next to Clara, who was motionless and breathing deeply and regularly.

He lay still for a moment, star-fields floating in front of his closed eyes, then suddenly he became certain that although Clara was to all outward appearances deeply asleep she was in fact wide awake, fully aware of his presence and his slightest movement.

"Why aren't you asleep, Clara?" he asked very gently.

"I… I was waiting for you to get in. And I was thinking about Louise." She replied, equally quietly.

Louise was their nineteen-year-old daughter. She had finished High School and now she wanted to go to Europe before she took up her place at Malcolm's old Yale college. Malcolm thought about her, lying in the bedroom beside them, and suddenly he became convinced that she was awake also, and that there was something on her mind.