In the distance, beyond the harbour wall, the few fishing boats that made up the local fleet were gliding out to sea and would not return until sunset. Max was greeted by the baker and his daughter, a shy young girl with rosy cheeks who stared at him as if he were some kind of prize. While they served him from a mouthwatering tray of sweet cinnamon buns just out of the oven, the baker asked after Irina. Clearly the news had spread: the local doctor obviously did more than take his patient’s temperature when he made home visits. As his father liked to say, in small towns news travelled at the speed of boredom.
Max managed to get back to the beach house with the breakfast buns still irresistibly warm. Without his watch he wasn’t sure what the time was, although he imagined it must be close to eight o’clock. The thought of having to wait for Alicia to wake up so he could have breakfast was not tempting, so he came up with a clever plan. With the excuse of giving her a hot breakfast, he prepared a tray with his booty from the bakery, milk and a couple of napkins and went up to Alicia’s bedroom. He rapped on the door with his knuckles until his sister’s sleepy voice gave an unintelligible mumble.
‘Room service,’ said Max. ‘Can I come in?’
He pushed the door open and stepped into the room. Alicia had buried her head under a pillow. Max looked around at the clothes hanging over chairs and her huge collection of random possessions. A girl’s room was always a bewildering place, thought Max, a complete mystery.
‘I’ll count to ten,’ he said, ‘then I’ll start eating.’
His sister’s face peeped out from under the pillow, scenting the sweet aroma in the air.
*
Roland was waiting for them by the edge of the beach, wearing just a pair of old trousers cut off at the knees. Next to him was a small boat that couldn’t have been more than three metres long and looked as if it had spent at least thirty years bleaching in the sun; the wood had acquired a greyish hue, visible under the few remaining smudges of blue paint. Despite all that, Roland seemed to be admiring his boat as if it were a luxury yacht. As Max and his sister walked down towards the shore, negotiating the stones on the beach, Max noticed that Roland had inscribed the vessel’s name on the prow with fresh paint, probably that very morning: Orpheus II.
‘Since when did you have a boat?’ Alicia asked, pointing at the ramshackle tub into which Roland had already loaded the diving gear and a couple of baskets with mystifying contents.
‘Since three hours ago. One of the local fishermen was about to break her up for firewood, but I convinced him to give her to me in exchange for a favour.’
‘A favour?’ asked Max. ‘I think you’re the one who’s done him a favour.’
‘You’re welcome to remain onshore if you’d prefer to have first-class accommodation, sire,’ retorted Roland. ‘Come on, all aboard.’
Max decided to keep his mouth shut and not wrestle with Roland’s pride. As far as he was concerned, the expression ‘aboard’ seemed inappropriate for the vessel in question. However, once they’d covered the first fifteen metres and he could see they were still afloat, Max thought better of it and opted not to judge the boat by its hopeless appearance.
‘Well, what do you think, my lord?’ joked Roland.
‘Fit for a prince, cabin boy.’
In fact, the boat moved swiftly in response to Roland’s energetic rowing and clearly had a lot more life in it than Max had originally imagined.
‘I’ve brought along a small contraption that may surprise you,’ said Roland.
Max looked at one of the covered baskets and lifted the lid a centimetre or two.
‘What’s in here?’ he murmured.
‘An underwater window,’ Roland explained. ‘Really it’s just a box with some glass at one end. If you place it on the surface of the water, you can see to the bottom without diving in. That’s why it’s like a window.’
Max pointed at his sister Alicia.
‘This way, at least you’ll be able to see something too,’ he said, teasing her.
‘Who says I’m going to stay here? I’m the one who’s going down today,’ she replied.
‘You? You don’t even know how to dive!’ cried Max, trying to wind his sister up.
‘If you call what you did the other day diving, no, I don’t,’ responded Alicia, not wanting to start a war.
Roland continued rowing, staying well out of their argument. Finally he stopped the boat some thirty metres from the shore. Beneath them, stretched out on the bottom of the sea, the dark shadow of the Orpheus waited like some gigantic shark lurking on the sand. Roland opened one of the baskets and pulled out a rusty anchor attached to a thick, frayed rope. When Max saw the state of the equipment, he assumed that all these bits and pieces were part of the batch Roland had bargained for in order to save the miserable rowing boat from a dignified and fitting end.
‘Careful, it’ll splash!’ cried Roland, as he threw the anchor into the sea. It plummeted in a vertical line, raising a small cloud of bubbles and taking with it most of the rope.
Roland let the current drag the boat along a few metres, then fastened the end of the anchor rope to a ring that hung from the prow. The boat swayed gently in the waves and the rope tensed, making the wooden structure creak. Max threw a suspicious look at the joints of the hull.
‘She’s not going to sink, Max. Trust me,’ Roland said, taking the underwater window out of its basket and placing it on the surface.
‘That’s what they said on the Titanic,’ Max replied.
Alicia leaned over to look through the box and for the first time saw the hull of the Orpheus lying on the bottom of the sea.
‘It’s incredible!’ she gasped.
Roland smiled happily and handed her a mask and a pair of flippers.
‘Wait till you see it close up,’ he said as he put on his gear.
The first to jump into the water was Alicia. Roland, sitting on the edge of the boat, gave Max a reassuring look.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on her. She’ll be all right,’ he said.
Roland jumped into the sea and joined Alicia, who was waiting for him about three metres beyond the boat. They both waved at Max and a few seconds later disappeared beneath the surface.
*
Under the water, Roland took Alicia’s hand and guided her over the wreck of the Orpheus. The temperature was lower than the last time he’d dived there, and he knew that the further down they went the colder it would be. Roland was used to this phenomenon. It happened sometimes during the first days of summer, especially when cold currents from the open sea flowed strongly below a depth of six or seven metres. In view of this, Roland decided that he wouldn’t allow Alicia or Max to dive down with him to the hull of the Orpheus that day. There would be plenty more days in the summer when they could attempt it.
Alicia and Roland swam along the length of the sunken ship, which lay in the spectral light of the seabed. Every now and then they stopped to come up for air and have another look at her from the surface.
Roland sensed Alicia’s excitement and didn’t take his eyes off her. He knew that if he wanted to enjoy a peaceful dive, it would have to be on his own. When he went diving with someone, especially with beginners, he couldn’t help behaving like an underwater nanny. Still, he was particularly pleased to share with his friends the magical world that for years had seemed to belong only to him. He felt like a guide in some bewitching attraction, leading visitors on an incredible journey above a submerged cathedral.
The watery scenery offered other incentives too. He liked to look at Alicia’s body moving under the surface. With each stroke, he could see the muscles on her torso and legs tense beneath her pale skin. In fact, he felt more comfortable watching her like this, when she wasn’t aware of his gaze. The next time they came up to the surface for air, the rowing boat was at least ten metres away. Alicia smiled excitedly. Roland returned her smile, but deep down he felt that the best thing to do would be to return to the boat.
‘Can we go down to the ship and go inside?’ Alicia asked, gasping as she spoke.
Roland noticed that her arms and legs were covered in goose pimples.
‘Not today,’ he replied. ‘Let’s go back to the boat.’
Alicia saw a flicker of anxiety cross Roland’s face.
‘Is anything the matter?’
Roland smiled calmly and shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about five-degree underwater currents just
