“Yes, it will be,” Andrew agreed. Just thinking about it made him go cold with fear. “Can you afford it?” he asked, still hoping the idea would go away.
“I have to do work for Mum, but yes,” Muriel replied. “Will you come with me if we do it?”
That really put Andrew on the spot. “I don’t know if I will be allowed,” he answered.
“Ask please. I really want to do it and it will be no fun with strangers,” Muriel answered.
“I will,” Andrew replied, almost sweating with anxiety at the thought.
“Thanks. I will try to ring again tomorrow at the same time,” Muriel said.
“Thanks, bye.”
“Bye.”
Andrew hung up and went to his room with very mixed feelings. To be with Muriel was what he urgently desired; but at the price of diving in the ocean again? And at night? Remembering the accounts he had read of the World War 2 divers swimming in enemy harbours in the dark made him shudder and he doubted if he was brave enough to do it. But how to get out of it without losing his self-respect? ‘And Muriel will think I am a coward,’ he thought. A horrible feeling of being trapped made him feel very anxious.
That night he had another diving nightmare. This time he was deep underwater in murky green water. His mind kept telling him to surface before he ran out of air and before it got dark but he could not find Carmen, who was his diving buddy. Becoming more and more frantic by the second he swam around the coral outcrops and around the weed and coral encrusted remains of an old wreck. Fearing she might have become trapped in the wreck Andrew swam to it and looked in, then summoned up the courage to enter. Before he knew it all the light was gone and he found himself in absolute blackness and unable to work out which way was up or where the opening he had entered by was. Panic welled up, causing him to sob and gasp. Suddenly a light shone in his face and he saw a hand reach out.
‘Saved!’ he croaked, only to have the hand suddenly snatch off his face mask. As the salt water stung his eyes and flooded up his nose he dimly saw the light fade.
He woke up shaking and gasping for breath. His bedclothes were twisted around his chest and neck and his pyjamas were soaked in perspiration.
“Oh bloody hell!” he muttered weakly. “Only a nightmare. Oh God! How will I ever be able to go diving again?”
Sleep would not return and it was an unhappy boy who lay awake brooding as the first grey streaks of dawn appeared in the sky.
Feeling depressed and tired Andrew made his way to school. He had found it an effort to pretend to his parents and to Carmen that he was well and happy but on his own the gloom and doubts seemed to return with redoubled force.
The thing that took his mind off his own woes that day was worry about his friend Graham Kirk. During Period 1 Andrew sat daydreaming of sailing (with Muriel) and staring out the window, wishing he was out there, free. The arrival of a police car at the front of the school attracted his attention. He became even more interested when he saw Graham climb out and walk in to the school with a policeman.
‘Strewth! Poor old Graham! He looks pretty miserable. I hope he isn’t in trouble. I wonder what happened?’ Andrew thought.
However he had no chance to ask Graham between periods so at morning break he went looking for him. Thus he was witness to another incident involving Graham. Andrew checked the place where Graham usually sat with his mates of the ‘Hiking Team’ but he was not with them so Andrew headed towards the tuck shop with Blake. Half way across the side of the quadrangle he saw Graham get into a fight.
Blake drew his attention to it by nudging him and pointing across the grass quadrangle. “Look Andrew. Kirk is arguing with that bully Larsen.”
Andrew, like all the Year 9s, knew who Larsen was, and was glad he had not yet attracted his attentions. Larsen was a big, red-haired Year 11 boy with a reputation for tormenting younger kids. Near the two arguing boys stood a curvy blonde, a Year 9 girl in Graham’s class named Ailsa. She was looking anxious and seemed to be trying to calm them.
Larsen suddenly swung a punch at Graham; a vicious uppercut which he just managed to dodge. In response Graham stepped in and punched Larsen hard in the stomach, causing him to double up. A right cross to Larsen’s jaw sent the bully sprawling on the sand.
Blake clapped his hands. “Oh bloody good hit!” he cried.
Andrew had to admit he was pleased. Larsen had been the bane of their life all year and it was certainly satisfying seeing him getting some of his own back. But there was anxiety too. Larsen was bigger and obviously stronger- and now he was very angry, having been humiliated in front of his girl friend and cronies. He scrambled to his feet and rushed at Graham, fists flailing.
Andrew began hurrying towards the fight, along with a hundred other students. He wasn’t sure what he would do when he arrived but felt a need to help his friend.
A ring of shouting, chanting students quickly formed around the combatants, blocking both Andrew’s vision and path. He glimpsed fists flailing and saw both boys manage to get solid blows home. Graham hit Larsen on the jaw again, sending him staggering back. Then, as he drew back to deliver another punch his arm was grabbed by Mr Page, the Senior Geography teacher. Mr Conkey arrived from the other direction and restrained Larsen.
There was then no way Andrew could help. All he could do was stand in the crowd and watch as the two were marched off to the office.
“What was that all about?” Andrew asked Angus MacDougal, a boy in Graham’s class.
“Oh, Kirky was silly enough to make a pass at Ailsa, but she is Larsen’s girlfriend and he took objection to that,” Angus explained. “Silly bugger!” he added.
It wasn’t until Period 7 after lunch, during Chemistry, that Andrew met up with Graham. He at once went over and asked him how he was, noting a big bruise on the side of his face, a split lip and a puffed up nose, plus various minor bruises. “You look like you've been in the wars,” he commented. “What happened?”
“Had a fight with Larsen,” Graham grunted.
“I saw that. You did a great job, got him a couple of beauties!” Andrew replied enthusiastically. Then he went on. “Er.. um .. It’s none of my business but I saw you arrive in a cop car this morning.”
Graham nodded. “Yeah. I wasn’t in trouble. I had a fight with gang of hoons who were harassing some little sheilas from St Monicas.”
Graham then related the incident but the story was cut short by the arrival of the hugely fat and very bossy teacher, Miss McLeod. Andrew did not get another chance to talk to Graham and, when he looked for him after school he saw no sign of him. He did linger for a few minutes to watch the school’s army cadet company start its weekly training parade, mainly to compare their drill to the navy cadet’s way of doing things. Next he went to the library to photocopy the newspaper clippings of Gran’s and some of the old photos. Then he rode home and sat to do his homework. This included drafting letters to various libraries and the State Archives.
When Carmen came home she informed him that she had organized with Gran for them to visit Mr McGackey the next afternoon. That suited Andrew as he had plenty to do. His homework done he lay down to read. This time he read an account of the Italian ‘Frogmen’ who had bravely penetrated Alexandria harbour in December 1941 and badly damaged two British Battleships, HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth. The men used two-man torpedoes and it all made Andrew wonder if he could ever swim underwater at night. It was a terrifying prospect.
To his consternation he was almost immediately put under more pressure by Carmen saying she wanted to do the Advanced Open Water Diving Course. “Will you come with us?” she asked.
“Us?” Andrew asked.
“Muriel