It had been around 30 minutes after Darius left, and I spotted this circular opening from the far left corner of my eye. I swam up to it and noticed that this reef was way bigger than expected. Luckily, the hole was big enough for me to go through. I had been exploring this bigger section of the reef for a while before I realized I had gone too far and may have been a little lost. No big deal, I thought. I could just go up and locate myself from the surface. I looked up, and I stopped. This wasn’t a reef. It was a huge cave. I couldn’t go up, since there was rock everywhere and I would suffer the same fate as Darius. The water was colder as well since there was no sun passing through. At this point, the only thing I could do was keep swimming, hoping there was an exit somewhere. For the next hour or so, that’s what I did. I was just lucky that the only things in that reef were small schools of fish. After swimming for what felt like an eternity, I finally spotted a ray of light. An exit. I could not be more excited than I was. Without thinking, I quickly went up as fast as I could, only to realize that the surface wasn’t that much of an improvement. There was nothing in sight. Not a single inch of land. I looked around for a while. There wasn’t land, but I spotted something in the distance. As I swam up to it, it became clearer and clearer that it was a boat. A small one at that, but still a boat. From my experience with my wetsuit, I already knew it was faster underwater, but that sadly wasn’t an option if I wanted to get to the boat. I swam for about 15 minutes until my muscles started giving up on me. I was so close. I used the last of my strength to get to the boat and pull myself up. You normally wouldn’t simply climb into another person’s boat, it’s sort of like an unwritten rule for us scuba divers, it was also federal law. But I simply couldn’t. I had to get on. I was shaking, but it was nice to have rays of sunlight warming me up. As I was finally resting on the port of the boat, I realized, I just got on another person’s boat… This boat was small. If someone saw me get in I wouldn’t be on the boat anymore, but I was. Something simply didn’t add up. I looked around for answers because this wasn’t normal. You don’t just abandon your boat in the middle of the sea. Close to the stern, there was a photo on the floor, I picked it up to examine it closer. It was a woman, of Latin, origin maybe? She was with a child who I’m thinking is her son. If this was their boat and they weren’t on it, maybe they went overboard? My other guess was that they forgot to tie the boat to a deck and it slowly swept away, but I highly doubt it. There was no land for hundreds, maybe thousands of kilometers. It was almost sad what happened. I couldn’t keep myself from spotting a phone. I picked it up, and it still had battery, so someone must have been here recently. The mother and son couldn’t be far away. I had to find them. I jumped back in the water, with a goal on my mind. A goal I had to accomplish.

Two hours had easily passed, and still nothing. I was starting to lose hope when I spotted something in the distance. It was land! An island! I swam as fast as I could until I reached it. I hugged the ground. I rested, I caught my breath, and I was happy. Even better, there was a small village on the island! I walked up to it, only to find out it wasn’t that big, but it was busy. Everywhere I looked people were working, walking fast as if they were late for something, and then I finally saw it. Food! I walked up to a man selling fruit until I realized I had no money. To my surprise, I saw someone casually just walking up to the stand and taking an apple without paying, and the merchant was fine with that somehow. So I walked up, took an apple, and hoped for the best. As expected, nothing happened, this village didn’t use currency, which is not profitable honestly, but I wasn’t complaining. I spoke to a man who lived on the island, and he explained everything. He told me how they didn’t use currency because they had nothing to pay. They didn’t pay taxes, didn’t pay for anything. They were free people. I took a bite out of that apple and all my worries started fading. After quickly finishing the apple, I remembered my goal to find the woman and her child, so I got straight back to work. A villager was kind enough to give me a small boat. I gratefully accepted and continued with my quest. I had been paddling for a while now, and the sun started to go down. I went into that beautiful coral reef with Darius at 8 am that same day. I just hope he’s fine and not worrying about me. 

It was night now, and honestly, I was terrified. I’d do anything except get into the deep cold, dark water. All I could use to see anything was the moon’s reflection on the water. I was about to just give up and go home when I heard something. 

“Ayuda! Alguien ayudenos porfavor!” I heard someone shouting in Spanish… 

A woman! Using her screams as a guide, I paddled as fast as I’d ever paddled in my life. And faster than not, I finally found them. I quickly jumped down into the water, introduced myself, and quickly put them into the boat. Luckily, the woman understood English. Her name was Alma and she was with her 11-year-old son, Juan. I offered them food I took from the village, as well as a blanket that came with the boat so that way they stayed warm. It was a miracle they survived. 

“Thank you, kind sir,” Alma said.

Luckily, Alma and Juan seemed to be alright on the way home. On the way, Alma told me a heartbreaking story about her ex-husband, Rogelio.

 “He was a dangerous man. He had many enemies and it was not safe with him back in our home in Tijuana, that’s why during our vacation in Sydney, Juan and I decided we had to get far, far away from him.” She explained.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” I apologized.

“Don’t be,” She started, “That was a long time ago. I am a different person now, I’ve moved on.” To summarize, they got on a boat and planned to use it to get to the nearest island where Rogelio couldn’t reach them. Right before finding an island, their boat crashed against a rock, forcing Alma and Juan to flee, until I found them. 

“I can barely remember that night, I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen, we were terrified. Thank the lord you found us when you did.” Alma thanked me.

The sun was finally coming out, just as I spotted the coast of Australia, where I first started my journey in that beautiful coral reef. While arriving, I helped Alma and Juan get off the boat, and they went to find food, right when I spotted Darius.

“Jamie?” He said, tears flowing down his face.

“It’s me, bud. I’m here. I’m right here.”

Darius ran over to hug me. As I hugged back, I was glad to see his head was doing okay.

“What happened?” He asked, “We’ve all been looking for you, we thought you died! Are you even okay?”

“I’m fine, Darius, it’s a crazy story. Come on, I’ll tell you on the way.” I said.

Darius and I walked toward our favorite Taco restaurant and I explained everything.

It had been two months, and I’d been happier than I’d ever been in a long time. Darius and I live happily with Alma and Juan in Australia. Honestly, looking back on it today, times were rough. We fought, we bled (just Darius though,) and we cried, but most importantly, we survived. So many things could have gone wrong so many times, and trust me, some did. But, not all was bad. I went on an adventure I will never forget, and made some friends I will cherish my entire life. Nobody lives forever, so the best we can do is take advantage of our time because time is one of the few things you don’t get back. I was taking in the beautiful sunset until Alma called out to me,

“Jamie!, The pollo is ready!”

“Coming!” I replied. 

I could keep talking about this forever, but now was the time to go spend time with my new friends. My new family.