It was hard not to feel like a small child as Xavier set me down onto the ladder of the boat, pulling my snorkel from my face and flipper from my feet. "I can do it," I'd tried to tell him, but he ignored me, gripping the edge of my life vest and turning me so my feet landed on the step, his hand gripping the wrung next to my hip. Grabbing the ladder wrung above me, I felt the boat move a bit as he lifted himself up just behind me and realized he needed me to move if he was going to be able to get on. Quickly climbing upwards, I got to the top of the ladder and misjudged the last step, but his hand caught the back of my vest and, dangling with my feet in the air for a moment, I felt him lift himself to the dock with little effort, before setting my feet back onto the deck.
He'd done al
