202 Chapter 202

I'd never been snorkeling or scuba diving before. I'd always imagined both activities being for the rich, or rather, not of the lower class stock I'd been.

But I imagined my dive in this world would have beaten both as the water became utterly clear about me, held at bay by only air. The water was clear as glass, free of any of the pollutants of an industrialized world, which allowed for the coral reef beneath to bloom in a vast spread of rainbow colors. There were even colors I had never expected, having never seen them in the pictures of coral reefs. I could make out fish meandering through the rainbow city, tendrils waving in the undercurrent, and flecks of tiny plankton drifting with the tide like dust motes on a sleepy afternoon.

I wanted to stay under forever. I wanted to drag Gus down here with his own fishbowl and teach him how to swim watched on by fish. I wanted a camera, or maybe anything that could save this moment.