I stayed quiet, still trying to figure him out. Something was seriously wrong with this guy. Clearly, he had fallen and severely hit his head at some time in his life.
Dylan merely looked at me with hope in his eyes, but then his face fell and he turned back to the rocky shore. “Forget it. I have observations to make.”
At first, I thought about returning to swimming in the sea like I had been before, but my curiosity had been piqued.
“Wait! What do you mean only human survivor?” I followed Dylan, hurrying across the beach and slipping on the surfgrass, falling flat on my butt.
Dylan whipped back around to face me, staring down at me sprawled on my backside like an overturned starfish on the grass. “I was always taught the entire land world of humans was exterminated by the second wave of the deadly virus that caused The Great Plague.” He held out a bony hand to help me up as he spoke. “Are you okay?”
I took the proffered hand and stood to my feet. Based on his hasty action, I could tell that the abrupt lack of interest was only a ploy to get me to run after him. Answering his question, I said, “No, we didn’t all die from The Great Plague. True, over half of the world’s population passed away, but everyone didn’t die…not even close. Besides, there was no second wave of The Great Plague. How do you not know this?”
Blinking several times in quick succession, Dylan simply stared at me as his face became even more puzzled. “How?”
“How did we survive?”
“Wait, um…uh.” Dylan paced towards his watercraft then back to me, pausing several times as if he wasn’t sure which way he needed to go.
“What are you doing?”
Sighing loudly in frustration, he strode over to where he’d dropped his tablet and pen, picking them up and trudging over to the tidepools. “I have to take down my observations, and then we can talk more.”
I followed Dylan quickly this time, careful of both the treacherous rocks and surfgrass. “What are you looking for?” I asked.
“Tidepools.”
“What are tidepools?”
Dylan gave me a condescending glare. “Here, look.”
I glanced over to where he pointed at a large salad-bowl-shaped divot in the rock harboring many different sea creatures. Reaching in, Dylan held up one for me to see.
“They’re microhabitats for small marine organisms, mainly invertebrates. This one is Pisaster ochraceous, or more commonly known as a purple sea star. These poor guys were almost entirely wiped out nearly 200 years ago by a disease that caused their arms to basically rot away from them.”
“Wow, that’s pretty sad.” I winced slightly and then pointed to another animal. “What about this one?”
“This is a sea anemone. Loads of them are scattered around here. They’re very interesting.” Dylan moved over for a closer examination. “I believe the one you’re pointing at is Anthopleura sola, or starburst anemone.”
Peering down at the pinkish-purple invertebrate, I could slightly understand his sentiment. Reaching down, I tentatively touched the anemone, the soft outer skin bubbling inward when my forefinger collided with it. It was a lot squishier than I had anticipated.
“Oh, and these things over here are barnacles. They essentially dominate the high intertidal zone.” Dylan jumped up and started moving up the rocky section of the beach.
Without looking down, I hurried to follow him but slipped and nearly fell to the ground before I caught myself.
Dylan’s head spun around to see me catch myself. “You really need to watch out for Phyllospadix torreyi—it’s really slippery.”
“Thanks,” I muttered as I continued carefully climbing up toward the barnacles. When I got to the rocky outcropping harboring the hard-shelled organisms, Dylan began introducing me to more animals.
Fueled by my curiosity, Dylan and I spent the next few hours exploring the tidepools while he documented his observations. He pointed out the creatures I didn’t recognize and often picked up the ones I didn’t want to touch. Identifying each one, he stated both the scientific and common names. Overturning rocks, he often found more animals than what was immediately apparent in the clear pools of water. I noticed he always took care in placing them back exactly where he found them. Based on him knowing the location of everything, I assumed he’d been telling the truth when he said he’d been here many times before.
Suddenly, our discovery session ended as Dylan glanced out to sea and stated, “I have to go.”
“What?”
“I need to return to Oceania. I will come back, don’t worry. And don’t say anything to anyone else about me.” Dylan raced down the beach to his watercraft, tossing his right leg over the seat while entering a code on the touchscreen. The engine roared to life and the front control panel began to light up. I could swear I heard him mumble in addition, “Or what you’re about to see.”
Before I could make up my mind to say something, he sped off on the waves. I watched him go until something odd happened. Perhaps I blinked my eyes or experienced some weird sea mirage, but he simply vanished. No, not just vanish; he dove underneath the waves…and he never resurfaced.
Bewildered, I sat on one of the rocks and waited until the last orange rays of sunset faded into a dark blue, but he never returned. Nor did I ever see him resurface. Perplexed, I slowly made my way to the fence with the broken hole. Lying down flat on my back, I scrambled underneath it, and through to the other side. Standing up, I began to think about what I’d just seen. Either I was dreaming or had drowned and died. None of it seemed real. How could someone simply disappear into the ocean and not resurface?
As I meandered home,
