Page 71 (1/2)

And Mark? Mark didn’t have enough air to get to the surface And even if he did, it wouldn’t exactly matter We were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, somewhere off the coast of Australia What was he supposed to do if he evenboater picked him up? And as he supposed to say? He was far fro

I bit my lip and tried not to freak out as precious seconds leaked away I’d known all along that I was going to have to make a choice like this one day, a choice between the two of them, but I’d never dreamed that it could be a life or death situation--for either of theh, it wasn’t much of a choice I looked at Kona, waited until his beautiful silver eyes met mine I’m sorry, I told him I can’t let Mark die

I know

I turned to Mahina Get him to a healer Keep hi She nodded at Mark

I know I crossed to Mark, s he was on the brink of death I didn’t know if that was because he didn’t realize how far doere or if he was justEither way, I wasn’t going to waste a second more

I pointed up and he nodded Then wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close, so that our bodies meshed from shoulder to hip He waved at Kona and Mahina, , o too fast because ere a long way down and rising too quickly could end up killing hi to fool around with

At the saen left to do everything we needed to Whichto have to et hi we could by the book And pray, by soh

I hated that we didn’t have a gauge to tell us how deep ere or how many feet we had ascended I tried to remember how many feet ere allowed to ascend per second--I think it was somewhere in the thirties Thirty-one? Thirty-seven? I decided to compromise at thirty-five to be on the safe side Of course, that was all esti up as slowly as I could, trying not to surpass thirty-five feet a minute After about fourfor a while as his body rid itself of excess bubbles fro not to breathe en to keep hi out at this level, his tank gave one long beep right before it shut down

For the first time there was real panic in Mark’s eyes, panic that et him up in time? Hoould I keep hi way off …

I shoved the worry down, closed my eyes, and tried to think There had to be a way out of this, had to be a way to keep Mark safe We hadn’t fought through everything with Tiaive up now I took a deep breath, blew it out slowly … and that’s when it ca apparatus froether Then took another deep breath in througha seal between our lips, and breathed the oxygen into hihtened convulsively on my hips as he took in the first breath, and held it for a few seconds before breathing it out I shookhis breath, and he nodded He already knehat I was trying to tell hi breath toorder I didn’t bla Leaned over and brushed Mark’s cold lips with my own until he opened them a second time; then I breathed more air into his mouth

He held the breath inside this tiht into mine with so much love, so much concern, so much awe, that it filled up every empty space I had inside of me I stroked a hand down his cheek, then wrapped my arms around him and meain, slowly and carefully When he finally blew the air out in tiny bubbles, I breathed for hi time, but eventually we reached the surface The second his head broke through the water, Mark took a series of long, ragged breaths Then he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me like it was the end of the world Like this was the last kiss he was ever going to have I wrapped my arms around him and kissed hirin at me, he said, "I love you, Teain

This tiure out which way Australia is"

He grinned and pointed behind

"How do you not kno much time have you spent in this ocean now?"