Explaining the Boss

Leah: Part 2

“Ms. Sheffield?” Stanley broke the silence, “Allow me to help you with your locker, we’ll take it below to your cabin.”

“Thanks,” she took one end of the heavy locker while Stanley took the other.

“Pardon me for being forward, but your accent suggests Australia?”

“Yes ma’am, you have a good ear. Care to guess what part?”

“Oh, I haven’t a clue. How about Sydney?”

“Well that’s a good guess ma’am, especially considering its such a large city, but no, I’m originally from Brisbane, but I spent much of my teen years and beyond around Cairns. Did a lot of sailing on the Coral Sea and around the Great Barrier Reef.”

“I should have known, spent some time in Cairns myself.” They worked their way down the companionway ladder and forward toward the awaiting cabin. Negotiating the tight passage was difficult. The locker barely fit through the narrow door into the cabin.

“Clifton Beach, that’s where I stayed when I was doing an assignment there once.”

“Yes ma’am, I know the area. A bit upscale for a roustabout like me.”

Leah answered back with only a smile, no words being necessary to unduly emphasize the difference between a big-city bred world traveler and small town adventurer.

The cabin was tight, but efficient. A narrow berth lined the right side of the cabin. Above it was storage, and to the foot of the berth was a small closet, more of a vertical locker. At the head of the bunk was an ‘L’ shaped desk that was secured against the starboard hull and continued across the opposite side of the cabin from the bed. Above the counter was more secure storage and below was just enough room to stow the foot-locker full of equipment that Leah had brought. The entire cabin was no larger than eight feet deep and six feet wide. Cozy was the right word.

And yet, the cabin had a certain warmth, photographs in frames were secured to the teak paneling with screws. An overhead lamp directed light toward the floor, keeping the ceiling dark and causing the corners to fall off into darkness at night. During the day, as it was now, two 12 inch portals allowed the exterior light to stream across the room.

“It’s warm this time of year and you’re not likely to need more than a sheet, but there are blankets and pillows on the top shelf of the locker,” Stanley pointed to the locker behind the door.

“We have a wet locker on the aft deck to stow your mask, fins, wetsuit, and anything else you got that’s wet.”

Stanley gave a thoughtful look before he continued, “Boss seemed kind of edgy when you came aboard. Don’t put too much into that, he’s usually in a jovial mood. But he do like for everyone to be doing their job. Hasn’t got much patience for incompetence, but on the other side, if you win his respect, you have his loyalty for life.”

“How long have you been with Mr. Packer?”

“Seventh year, ma’am. No two alike, always an adventure.”

“I’ll bet it is.”

“Ma’am, would you like a quick story?”

“Sure, Stanley, go on.”

“Six years ago—I hadn’t been with Mr. Packer all that long—we were diving the wall at Pittstown Point, Bahamas. Well, that wall just drops and goes down to the murky depths. It freaks some people out just being over it.”

“Uh huh.”

“Packer had a half dozen guests on board, two couples and a couple of buddies, they all knew each other through some club. They were all novices, but Packer let ‘em suit up and head into the water.

“It was just Packer and me havin’ to keep an eye an all these folks. Packer gave ‘em plenty of instruction, showed ‘em how all the equipment worked. Explained the buddy system, and went over in detail the currents and what they could do.

“Things went pretty smoothly till one o’ the dames,” Stanley caught himself, smiled, and continued, “excuse me, one of the ladies decided she wanted to see what was over that wall. She just went swimming off by herself all unconcerned. Packer saw she was moving out into an area of current and started after her. We were 50 feet down and he turned and gave me the signal to wrap it up. I got the other folks to understand we were heading back to the boat, time was up on the tanks, and the current was starting to run.

“By the time Ol’ man Packer catches up with her, she’s out in the current and being swept out to sea. She gets over the wall and takes a long, long look down and can’t see anything but deep, deep blue and she starts to panic. Only she can’t get back to the boat or shore because she’s so far out and can’t make progress against the current.

“Packer grabs her and starts to calm her down—signals to start up, then she sees two makos not more than fifty feet away, cruising the wall. It can’t get too much worse, Packer‘s got a panicky swimmer, she sees a pair of sharks, now she wants to go straight up. Packer’s holding her down so she don’t get the bends, keeping an eye on the makos, watching his time piece timing the ascent and trying to calm the lady all at the same time.

“Well all the thrashing is attracting the attention of the makos, which under usual conditions will just leave you alone. They start to circle, not so much to feed but out of curiosity. They’re just dumb fish, what do you expect them to do?

“At this point they’re only ten feet from the surface, but they still need a couple more minutes decompression time. He knows he’s got to keep her mind off the fish so he grabs her air and hands her his own air. Now why the hell would he do that? What’s the difference, you might ask? Well, it’s so distracting having your air yanked out of your mouth that now all she can think of is breathing. He’s not trying to drown her, but there’s something unnatural about not sucking on your own air. Now she’s tethered to him by panic and he doesn’t have to worry about her swimming off or thrashing about. She’s holding that air with all the strength she’s got.

“As they approach the surface, them makos is so close they bump ‘em when they pass. Ol’ man Packer’s got a big knife strapped to his leg, but the last thing he wants is blood in the water, so he keeps his knife sheathed. He gets the lady’s arms behind her back and positions the two of them so they’re facing in opposite directions. There’s only two sharks and they ain’t working the situation real hard, just hard enough to keep the lady in thorough panic. Packer keeps himself facing the sharks and keeps the lady facing away, hoping she’ll calm down a little.

“He puts his legs stiff-out and shoves these beasts when they pass. Must’ve pissed off one of ‘em because the shark takes a big bite out of his left dive fin.

“’Bout that time I can see ‘em bobbing in the water and I pull the ship alongside. I tossed the ladder over the side then jumped in and helped push that large-bottomed woman up the ladder. She hit the deck and just fell over faint.

“Packer wouldn’t get out of the water until I was up and safe, then he boarded. Know what he said when he got his mask off?”

Leah shook her head.

“He says, ‘I think it’s my turn to cook, better get started, I’m a little on the hungry side.’”

“I doubt his pulse was ever more than 60 beats per minute through the whole thing.”
Leah looked at Stanley in an inquisitive sort of way, not sure whether to believe every word, or call Stanley a damned-good story teller and an even better liar.

Stanley finished and looked at Leah. “You can’t tell whether I’m just givin’ you one, well right there on the wall is that old pair of flippers.” Stanley pointed to the wall opposite the bunk where pictures and memorabilia were nailed to the wall. In the far left corner was nailed one full flipper and a second with the undeniable shape of a bite out of the end.

“Packer said they wasn’t good for much anymore and he needed a new pair anyway, so he just nailed ‘em to the wall and forgot about ‘em.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes,” Leah answered in a small voice.

“Don’t judge the ol’ man too harshly on first impressions. He’s got a heart made out of pure gold, and if you’re ever in a tight fix, he’s the one you want beside you.”

Leah smiled demurely and thanked Stanley for the help and for the story.

“Dinner’s in 15, look forward to seeing you there, ma’am.”


Faithfully submitted,
Teddy Packer