Deep Trouble (2 page)

He dipped his hand in the water and pulled up a handful of slimy green
strings. “There’s seaweed everywhere.”

“But I saw it!” I shouted. “I saw its tentacles, its big, pointy teeth!”

“There’s no such thing as sea monsters,” said Sheena. Miss Know-It-All.

“Let’s discuss it on the boat,” my uncle said, dropping the clump of seaweed
back in the water.

“Come on. Swim back with me. And stay away from the reef. Swim around it.”

He turned around and started swimming toward the
Cassandra.
I saw that
the sea monster had pulled me into the lagoon. The reef lay between us and the
boat. But there was a break in the reef we could swim through.

I followed them, thinking angry thoughts.

Why didn’t they believe me?

I had seen the creature grab my leg. It wasn’t a stupid clump of seaweed. It
wasn’t my imagination.

I was determined to prove them wrong. I’d find that creature and show it to
them myself—someday. But not today.

Now I was ready to get back to the safety of the boat.

I swam up to Sheena and called, “Race you to the boat.”

“Last one there is a chocolate-covered jellyfish!” she cried.

Sheena can’t refuse a race. She started speeding toward the boat, but I
caught her by the arm.

“Wait,” I said. “No fair. You’re wearing flippers. Take them off.”

“Too bad!” she cried, and pulled away. “See you at the boat!” I watched her
splash away, building a good lead.

She’s not going to win, I decided.

I stared at the reef up ahead.

It would be faster just to swim over the reef. A shortcut.

I turned and started to swim straight toward the red coral.

“Billy! Get back here!” Dr. D. shouted.

I pretended I didn’t hear him.

The reef loomed ahead. I was almost there.

I saw Sheena splashing ahead of me. I kicked extra-hard. I knew she’d never
have the guts to swim over the reef. She’d swim around the end of it. I would
cut through and beat her.

But my arms suddenly began to ache. I wasn’t used to swimming so far.

Maybe I can stop at the reef and rest my arms for a second, I thought.

I reached the reef. I turned around. Sheena was swimming to the left, around
the reef. I figured I had a few seconds to rest.

I stepped onto the red coral reef—

—and screamed in horror!

My foot burned as if it were on fire. The throbbing pain shot up my leg.

I screamed and dove into the water.

When I surfaced, I heard Sheena yelling, “Dr. D.! Come quick!”

My foot burned, even in the cold ocean water.

Dr. D. came up beside me. “Billy, what’s the problem now?” he demanded.

“I saw him do something really stupid,” Sheena said, smirking.

If my foot hadn’t been burning up, I definitely would have punched out her
lights.

“My foot!” I moaned. “I stepped on the reef—and—and—”

Dr. D. held on to the lifesaver ring around my waist. “Ow. That’s painful,”
he said, reaching up to pat my shoulder. “But you’ll be all right. The burning
will stop in a little while.”

He pointed to the reef. “All that bright red coral is fire coral.”

“Huh? Fire coral?” I stared back at it.

“Even I knew that!” Sheena said.

“It’s covered with a mild poison,” my uncle continued. “When it touches your
skin, it burns like fire.”

Now
he tells me, I thought.

“Don’t you know
anything?”
Sheena asked sarcastically.

She was asking for it. She really was.

“You’re lucky you only burned your foot,” Dr. D. said. “Coral can be very
sharp. You could have cut your foot and gotten poison into your bloodstream.
Then you’d
really
be in trouble.”

“Wow! What kind of trouble?” Sheena asked. She seemed awfully eager to hear
about all the terrible things that could have happened to me.

Dr. D.’s expression turned serious. “The poison could paralyze you,” he said.

“Oh great,” I said.

“So keep away from the red coral from now on,” Dr. D. warned. “And stay away
from the lagoon, too.”

“But that’s where the sea monster lives!” I protested. “We have to go back
there. I have to show it to you!”

Sheena bobbed in the blue-green water. “No such thing, no such thing,” she
chanted. Her favorite phrase. “No such thing—right, Dr. D.?”

“Well, you never know,” Dr. D. replied thoughtfully. “We don’t know all of
the creatures that live in the oceans, Sheena. It’s better to say that scientists have
never seen one.”

“So there, She-Ra,” I said.

Sheena spit a stream of water at me. She hates it when I call her She-Ra.

“Listen, kids—I’m serious about staying away from this area,” said Dr. D.
“There may not be a sea monster in that lagoon, but there could be sharks,
poisonous fish, electric eels. Any number of dangerous creatures. Don’t swim
over there.”

He paused and frowned at me, as if to make sure I’d been paying attention.

“How’s your foot feeling, Billy?” he asked.

“It’s a little better now,” I told him.

“Good. Enough adventure for one morning. Let’s get back to the boat. It’s
almost lunchtime.”

We all started swimming back to the
Cassandra.

As I kicked, I felt something tickle my leg again.

Seaweed?

No.

It brushed against my thigh like—
fingers.

“Cut it out, Sheena,” I shouted angrily. I spun around to splash water in her
face.

But she wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere near me.

She was up ahead, swimming beside Dr. D.

Sheena couldn’t possibly have tickled me.

But something definitely
did.

I stared down at the water, suddenly gripped with terror.

What was down there?

Why was it teasing me like that?

Was it preparing to grab me again and pull me down forever?

Alexander DuBrow, Dr. D.’s assistant, helped us aboard the boat.

“Hey, I heard shouting,” Alexander said. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine, Alexander,” said Dr. D. “Billy stepped on some fire
coral, but he’s all right.”

As I climbed up the ladder, Alexander grabbed my hands and pulled me aboard.

“Wow, Billy,” he said. “Fire coral. I accidentally bumped into the fire coral
my first day here. I saw stars. I really did, man. You sure you’re okay?”

I nodded and showed him my foot. “It feels better now. But that wasn’t the
worst thing that happened. I was almost eaten by a sea monster!”

“No such thing, no such thing,” Sheena chanted.

“I really saw it,” I insisted. “They don’t believe me. But it was there. In
the lagoon. It was big and green and—”

Alexander smiled. “If you say so, Billy,” he said. He winked at Sheena.

I wanted to punch out his lights, too.

Big deal science student. What did
he
know?

Alexander was in his early twenties. But, unlike Dr. D., he didn’t look like
a scientist.

He looked more like a football player. He was very tall, about six feet four
inches, and muscular. He had thick, wavy blond hair and blue eyes that crinkled
in the corners. He had broad shoulders, and big, powerful-looking hands. He
spent a lot of time in the sun and had a smooth, dark tan.

“I hope you’re all hungry,” Alexander said. “I made chicken salad sandwiches
for lunch.”

“Oh. Great,” Sheena said, rolling her eyes.

Alexander did most of the cooking. He thought he was good at it. But he
wasn’t.

I went below deck to my cabin to change out of my wet bathing suit. My cabin
was really just a tiny sleeping cubby with a cupboard for my things. Sheena had
one just like it. Dr. D. and Alexander had bigger cabins that they could
actually walk around in.

We ate in the galley, which was what Dr. D. called the boat’s kitchen. It had
a built-in table and built-in seats, and a small area for cooking.

When I entered the galley, Sheena was already sitting at the table. There was
a big sandwich on a plate in front of her, and one waiting for me.

Neither of us was too eager to try Alexander’s chicken salad. The night before, we had had
Brussels sprouts casserole. For
breakfast this morning, he served us whole wheat pancakes that sank to the
bottom of my stomach like the
Titanic
going down!

“You first,” I whispered to my sister.

“Uh-uh,” Sheena said, shaking her head. “You try it. You’re older.”

My stomach growled. I sighed. There was nothing to do but taste it.

I sank my teeth into the sandwich and started chewing.

Not bad, I thought at first. A little chicken, a little mayonnaise. It
actually tasted like a regular chicken salad sandwich.

Then, suddenly, my tongue started to burn. My whole mouth was on fire!

I let out a cry and grabbed for the glass of iced tea in front of me. I
downed the entire glass.

“Fire coral!” I screamed. “You put fire coral in the chicken salad!”

Alexander laughed. “Just a little chili pepper. For taste. You like it?”

“I think I’d rather have cereal for lunch,” Sheena said, setting down her
sandwich. “If you don’t mind.”

“You can’t have cereal for every meal,” Alexander replied, frowning. “No
wonder you’re so skinny, Sheena. You never eat anything but cereal. Where’s your
spirit of adventure?”

“I think I’ll have cereal, too,” I said sheepishly. “Just for a change of
pace.”

Dr. D. came into the galley. “What’s for lunch?” he asked.

“Chicken salad sandwiches,” said Alexander. “I made them spicy.”

“Very
spicy,” I warned him.

Dr. D. glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?” he said. “You know,
I’m not very hungry. I think I’ll just have cereal for lunch.”

“Maybe Billy and I could make dinner tonight,” Sheena offered. She poured
cereal into a bowl and added milk. “It’s not fair for Alexander to cook
all
the time.”

“That’s a nice idea, Sheena,” said Dr. D. “What do you two know how to make?”

“I know how to make brownies from a mix,” I offered.

“And I know how to make fudge,” said Sheena.

“Hmm,” said Dr. D. “Maybe
I’ll
cook tonight. How does grilled fish
sound?”

“Great!” I said.

After lunch, Dr. D. went into his office to go over some notes. Alexander led
Sheena and me into the main lab to show us around.

The work lab was really cool. It had three big glass tanks along the wall
filled with weird, amazing fish.

The smallest tank held two bright yellow sea horses and an underwater trumpet. The underwater trumpet was a long,
red-and-white fish shaped like a tube. There were also a lot of guppies swimming
around in this tank.

Another tank held some flame angelfish, which were orange-red like fire, and
a harlequin tusk-fish, with orange-and-aqua tiger stripes for camouflage.

The biggest tank held a long, black-and-yellow snakelike thing with a mouth
full of teeth.

“Ugh!” Sheena made a disgusted face as she stared at the long fish. “That one
is really gross!”

“That’s a black ribbon eel,” said Alexander. “He bites, but he’s not deadly.
We call him Biff.”

I snarled through the glass at Biff, but he ignored me.

I wondered what it would be like to come face to face with Biff in the ocean.
His teeth looked nasty, but he wasn’t nearly as big as the sea monster. I
figured William Deep, Jr., world-famous undersea explorer, could handle it.

I turned away from the fish tanks and stood by the control panel, staring at
all the knobs and dials.

“What does this do?” I asked. I pushed a button. A loud horn blared. We all
jumped, startled.

“It honks the horn,” Alexander said, laughing.

“Dr. D. told Billy not to touch things without asking first,” said Sheena.
“He’s told him a million times. He never listens.”

“Shut up, She-Ra!” I said sharply.

“You
shut up.”

“Hey—no problem,” said Alexander, raising both hands, motioning for us to
chill out. “No harm done.”

I turned back to the panel. Most of the dials were lit up, with little red
indicators moving across their faces. I noticed one dial that was dark, its red
indicator still.

“What’s this for?” I asked, pointing to the dark dial. “It looks like you
forgot to turn it on.”

“Oh, that controls the Nansen bottle,” Alexander said. “It’s broken.”

“What’s a Nansen bottle?” asked Sheena.

“It collects samples of seawater from way down deep,” said Alexander.

“Why don’t you fix it?” I asked.

“We can’t afford to,” said Alexander.

“Why not?” asked Sheena. “Doesn’t the university give you money?”

We both knew that Dr. D.’s research was paid for by a university in Ohio.

“They gave us money for our research,” Alexander explained. “But it’s almost
gone. We’re waiting to see if they’ll give us more. In the meantime, we don’t
have the money to fix things.”

“What if the
Cassandra
breaks down or something?” I asked.

“Then I guess we’ll have to put her in dry dock for a while,” said Alexander.
“Or else find a new way to get more money.”

“Wow,” said Sheena. “That would mean no more summer visits.”

I hated to think of the
Cassandra
just sitting on a dock. Even worse
was the thought of Dr. D. being stuck on land with no fish to study.

Our uncle was miserable whenever he had to go ashore. He didn’t feel
comfortable unless he was on a boat. I know, because one Christmas he came to
our house to visit.

Usually Dr. D. is fun to be with. But that Christmas visit was a nightmare.

Dr. D. spent the whole time pacing through the house. He barked orders at us
like a sea captain.

“Billy, sit up straight!” he yelled at me. “Sheena, swab the decks!”