My son Cody has been taking classes on the weekends for his certificate for scuba diving. There has been quite a bit of classroom training, but they finally started diving. His first trip to the field was in Lake Murray which is a stones throw from our house.
I pulled into the parking area of a public access to the lake and searched for signs of my family who were watching the diving class. I heard the familiar tones of my younger children echoing off of the water. I walked over to the edge of the dam and saw my wife and kids perched on the spillway like little ducks. It was early afternoon and the sun was battling with the wind and clouds for time against our skin. The clouds were thick and heavy. They were swollen with water and teased us with an occasional rain drop.
We sat next to the staging area close to some concrete steps that led into the water. There were a dozen and a half oxygen tanks soldiered upon a blue tarp that sat under an oak tree next to us. We were in the right place… we quietly waited for some activity. We heard the occasional flipper that pierced the surface and watched bubbles rise. Dark, seal-like heads would pop up from time to time and we would try and guess which one of the divers was Cody.
The November water was cold… like the wind. And just as we decided to make our way toward the vehicles, the group of divers made their way toward us. We found our Cody. Whispers of blonde hair that were not protected by his wet suit gave him away even before he removed his mask to give us a smile and a wave of acknowledgment.
His hands were cold and he pulled them to his palms in rhythm trying to warm them up. We wanted to help him with his tanks and his suit, but we held back… afraid to interfere with the class. I saw Jackson pulling at the seams of Cody’s diving bag. He hurriedly tugged on the zipper to ready it for the equipment. He saw me watching him and reluctantly pulled back with a smile.
All of our eyes were drawn to see what Cody was prying from his driver’s pouch. Underneath the tear of Velcro appeared a treasure. We gathered together to watch him pull a forgotten bottle out of his pocket. I watched him admire it. He rubbed his hand over the surface and onto the neck of the clear glass. He smiled and held it out to his mother. Six little hands ran interference until she was able to take it from him. We all wanted to know where it came from and how he could see it in the murky waters of the lake.
The excitement of this first diving trip may escape him as he gets older. The magical feeling he must have felt as he first touched that little treasure will come in different forms as he finds different paths to follow. But who can know what this may lead to. He may use this day to follow a dream that will lead him to a world of crystal waters. I just hope he can hold on to the feeling of freedom… the comfort of his family beside him and the emotion of finding something special and unexpected. I can still remember him as a little boy playing in the bathtub with a new toy… smiling underwater and blowing bubbles.
Shannon R Killman
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