Chapter 4

Artemis

I insisted that we shop for a scuba suit for me, before we left Austin. I learned that 'scuba suit' was the wrong term, and that 'wet suit' or 'dry suit' was better. It wasn't really clear to me what the difference was, except that obviously, in one of them I'd get wet and in the other I'd stay dry. Zeus said I'd be much better off in the wet suit, so that's what I got.

In the wet suit, I couldn't wear my elasticized sports bra. I normally wore that all the time. Before I met Zeus, I wore it to downplay the fact that I was female, as much as possible. A single woman doesn't want attention from random males – at least, the kind of single woman that I was, didn't want attention. I was serious when I told Zeus that every male had to be looked at as a potential rapist.

After I met Zeus, I wore it because ... well, because I just did, that's all. He was used to seeing me in one way, and I didn't want to mess that up.

True, I hadn't worn one when I put on my bikini back in Alligator Bay; but Zeus was out of it then. And the regular swim suits that I wore to the various pools were one-piece and rather modest.

In trying on the wet suit, I had to do away with the sports bra. It's not that I had so much I was trying to conceal. I had always been relatively flat-chested, an 'A' cup, if you must know. It's just that ... hell ... Okay, so I wanted Zeus to see me as a sleek female type animal in the wet suit. It wasn't that much different from a swim suit. It covered more of the body, in fact. What was different, was me.

There. I said it. I wanted Zeus to see me as a female, not just a spotter, or a financial attachment to the team, but as a woman.

Maybe, just maybe, not all men were potential rapists. Maybe I was not the frightened ten year-old girl who was pawed at by some anonymous man at the Texas State Fair, any more. Christ! We were in line at the Ferris wheel. Ten girls, and he singled out me. It was just a quick grope, you know? But it made me scared. When I get scared, I get defensive. When I get defensive, I wear undergarments that hide what little I have to hide. Thirteen years of hiding may be a bit excessive, I admit. Plus I put blue or red or green dye in my hair, and I acted aggressive.

I'm not aggressive. I'm scared.

So, when I popped out of the fitting room, I was a little nervous. I expected a reaction.

Zeus reacted all right, but...

"It fits okay? No binding under the arms? Move your arms like you're swimming. How does it feel?"

I moved the aforementioned limbs in the aforementioned way.

"No, nothing binds."

"Great. That's your size," he said.

THAT was his reaction? 'That's your size.' Fuck him.

He had never come with me when I went to buy clothes. In fact, I hadn't bought any since we started this adventure. I didn't even have a dress. Here I was in this 'wet suit' – okay, I showed more in even a modest swim suit, but we were buying clothes, and I was feeling all sleek and sexy.

He'd said, 'that's your size, ' and then he went over to look at masks. So I went back to the changing room and put on my jeans and t-shirt – and the de-emphasizing sports bra.

'That's your size.'

And the horse he rode in on.

Where was a girlfriend now that I needed to talk to one?

I sulked all the way to Orlando, keeping my ear buds in and listening to classical music. It got to the point that even stone-head ... excuse me, I mean Zeus ... wanted to know "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said, in a monotone. "Everything's fine. Just fine."

"Oh. Okay," he replied, and went back to his nap. God! How dense can one person be?

When we finally arrived in Orlando and checked in at a campground on the outskirts of civilization, Zeus was ready to go scuba-ing.

"Are you ready to take my best punch on your leg?" I said. "'Cause that's the price of admission to this swimming hole. Frankly, the wound is just starting to heal up, and it looks pretty red. But it's your call, tough guy."

"Hold on," Zeus had flinched protectively. "No punches, yet. And okay, you can go and get the rifle. Do you know where it is?"

"On the bottom?" DUH!

"It's buried. We couldn't have the police divers, or some random fisherman, finding it."

"I don't think there are any random fishermen," I said, still not over being frustrated at his stone-headedness. "Besides, you weren't exactly in great shape when you buried it. You don't know either."

"But I saw him bury it," chipped in Master Chief Martinez, through the H2's dashboard. "I can find it."

"You can't go swimming," I said, "as long as Zeus can't."

We were at an impasse. Zeus couldn't swim because I wouldn't allow it and I didn't know where the rifle was. We won't mention that I didn't know how to swim effectively underwater, but like I said before, how hard can it be? People do it all the time.

It was quiet in the vehicle, until Io had an idea.

"Artemis, you have a water resistant camera in your mobile phone," she said. "All you need to beam video you shoot back to here is a light source."

"Great idea, Io! We'll get one of those headlamps so I can have my hands free. Martinez and Zeus can give me clues as to where to dig."

So, that's what we did. We got a headlamp. We got a good underwater flashlight, with a wrist strap and everything, too. We even remembered to get extra batteries!

The next morning, we drove to the pick up spot and I got out. I headed off into the woods. I took a video of the first tree I saw, and sent it off to Io, to see if everything worked.

I got back, "If this tree is at the bottom of the lake, you're in the wrong lake!" so I guess it worked okay.

I went around to approximately where I rescued Zeus from his abductor's evil clutches. Three weeks of weather meant that there was very little sign that this was anything other than another shady, swampy spot. I put my fins on, and walked backwards toward the lake, like I'd seen Zeus do. Turns out that it's the only sensible way of walking, with swim fins, that doesn't make you feel like a clumsy version of Donald Duck. I practiced for a few moments, holding the rebreather in my mouth, and then in I went.

When my head got underwater, I began breathing through the rebreather, for real. The 'air' I got was stale and tasted metallic, and I felt like I really had to pull in it in and push it out. I was beginning to get claustrophobic – and I was only six inches deep.

All right, Ms Desmonopolous, you said you'd do this so that stone-head wouldn't have to get his leg reinfected. So DO IT.

I couldn't really tell where the bottom was, but it must be down there somewhere. I went down until I felt a mucky, silty kind of bottom. I swam out slowly following the bottom and nearly scared myself to pieces. Okay, so it was a little fish, about six inches long. But it moved. I started wondering what else might be lurking in this water. A barracuda? Were they a fresh water fish? Was this fresh water? An alligator? I'd heard that there were fresh-water sharks, somewhere.

I thought about bolting to the top, which Zeus had said was only twelve to eighteen feet over my head.

I took a few deeper breaths, all the while feeling that there was no such thing as 'a deep breath' with this ridiculous rebreather in my mouth.

That worked. I wasn't thinking so much about the fishes and alligators anymore.

I sent by text along with a short video of where I was: "Where to?"

They'd have my GPS red dot on their display, I assumed.

The return text was: "Move South. Look for the jagged piece of metal that cut Zeus' leg."

Great. I wondered if it would have a sign on it saying 'Zeus cut his leg here' like the sign that Davy Crockett supposedly posted in the Kentucky mountains saying 'Kilt a bar on this spot.' Davy wasn't such a good speller, and his editor was worse. Somebody should have corrected it to 'Killed a bear on this spot.'

I swam about for a while, checking for jutting pieces of metal – and wood for that matter. Nada. I was getting more comfortable, searching along the bottom and going shallower, looking for the 'Zeus-leg-opener.'

I flat-out panicked when I saw a snake swimming along near the surface. I managed to get a video of it, and sent it along with: "SNAKE!"

The reply, likely from Zeus, was: "Probably not dangerous. You are bigger than it is, so it will be more scared of you. Don't provoke it. Stay below it, and it probably won't even see you. Keep searching."

I went back to searching, but with many more glances up towards the surface. It was barely visible from the bottom. The water was terribly murky and green. I reminded myself not to drink any, and to take a long shower when I got out, and to wash everywhere – twice!