God, Love & All Things Surf

Chapter 11: The Walls of Jericho

"So what's it look like today? What did you see?" Simeon's head appeared over the side of the boat, his snorkel sticking up in the air as Thea and Max surfaced. "Maybe today I'll get to see an olive ridley sea turtle or a spotted eagle ray!" He turned to Thea excitedly, his hands gripping the side of the dinghy.

Thea smiled as Simeon went on about what they might see now that they were on the Caribbean. Just as Jericho shared Thea's love for surfing, she and Simeon had a mutual fascination with God's underwater creation. They had spent hours together researching and memorizing popular marine life in Costa Rica, right down to the genus and species. Thea also loved helping her brother with his school projects, which constantly revolved around marine life.

"Whaddya think, T? Any rays down there?"

Thea couldn't help but giggle at his enthusiasm. "You know, I didn't see any but I wasn't looking as hard as you do."

It was hard for her to explain her fear to her siblings, so most of the time she didn't. All they knew was that sometimes she didn't like being in deep water. Being the oldest child in the family since Daniel had left for university, she felt very protective of her brothers and sister. And she felt like she couldn't protect them in the water if she was always scared, so she learnt to deal with it.

"But you know what we did see?" Thea asked.

All three kids slid over to her, eager to hear what discoveries had been made.

Thea climbed into the dingy and took off her snorkel gear. "There are tons of schools of fish, including a big school of angelfish. Max spotted a moray eel in a rock crevice, and a bright yellow frogfish. And I found these,"

She reached into her small diving bucket and carefully brought out a bright red starfish that was larger than her hand. It had evenly spaced black spots on its orange-red skin. She also had a green-brown sand dollar about two inches in diameter.

"Whoa! Look how big that thing is!" Jericho gaped at the starfish. Since he wasn't old enough to venture into deep water, he came along for the ride, and to see what interesting things were found. Thea's mom called it a good "homeschooling moment".

"Cool! Can I hold the sand dollar?" Kari asked. She let out an excited shriek at the feeling of its miniscule legs moving over her skin. "Ew, it feels slimy." She made a face and passed it on to Simeon.

"Pretty sweet, huh?" Max rested his upper body on the side of the boat, his legs floating in the ocean so that he didn't have to tread water. "But we'll have to put them back so they can breathe underwater again, okay?"

"I'll do it!" Simeon volunteered.

"Sure, come in the water and T will pass the starfish to you." Max said. "Kari, why don't you take the sand dollar back?"

As the kids got ready Max swam over to Thea. She had decided to stay in the boat with Jericho while the twins had their turn snorkeling.

"Hey." Max hoisted himself up onto the side of the dinghy once more. "Do you know," He spoke quietly, interlocking his fingers with hers, "how beautiful you are when you swim?" 

Thea smiled, embarrassed at his bold compliment. "I'm guessing that means 'You did a great job down there' without actually saying it?"

Why did he have to be so nice and good-looking? She wasn't complaining by any means but she felt as though she was always blushing around him.

"No..." Max faltered and couldn't help grinning. "Well, yeah, I guess. "But you are beautiful." He reached his free hand up to push her wet hair behind her ear.