Thirty-One Letters

Twenty-Three

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love—Washington Irving

She was sopping wet as she climbed out of the ray tank. It had taken over an hour to clean the exhibit and Hadley was exhausted as she hauled her BCD – buoyancy control device – and tank out of the water. The cleaning of the ray tank had come after a morning of orientation and learning the ropes. When she wasn't diving, she had been helping prep food and clean gear. She dripped onto the floor, the water pooling out from her wetsuit and her hair as she removed the mask and snorkel.

"How are you feeling?" Dave Castellano asked.

He was a stocky man in his forties with brown hair that matched the colour of his eyes exactly. He also happened to be her new supervisor at the Fort Fisher Aquarium and had been watching her progress as she cleaned. Dave was an aquarist who primarily looked after the animals at the aquarium but whenever new divers were brought on board he was always the one to oversee training.

"Good," Hadley panted. It had been awhile since she'd used her SCUBA gear but it had felt nice to get back into the water and swim around with the animals. She'd forgotten how much she loved being under the waterline. It was like a whole other world down there.

Stewart D'Angelo, Hadley's coworker and diving buddy for the morning, chucked his fins out of the water onto the deck and popped up beside her. "It went well. You were definitely getting the hang of it by the end."

"Thanks."

"Feel free to take down your gear in that room I showed you earlier. Give it a quick clean and then store it with the rest– unless you'd like to take it home with you. After that, you're good to go and I'll see you later." Dave waved cheerfully at her and wandered off, disappearing off into one of the back rooms.

Hadley and Stewart wandered off towards the gear room where she placed her equipment on the ground and went about dismantling it. Stewart knelt down next to her and began taking down his kit at the same time. She turned the valve releasing the air through the tank and cleared out the remaining air in her BCD low pressure inflator and regulators. Then she undid the straps that had been holding her tank to the BCD and moved the tank towards the empty rack so that it could be refilled for the next user.

When her rig and BCD had been put away neatly, Hadley stripped off the wetsuit and rinsed it down before leaving it to dry on a nearby hook.

"How do you feel?" Stewart asked as he finished dismantling his own gear.

"Good." Hadley smiled over at him. "It's been awhile but it's nice to get back in."

"Glad to hear it. Big plans for the evening?"

Hadley shook her head. "Not really. You?"

Stewart shrugged and hauled his empty tank onto the rack. Together they left the gear room and headed for a spot down the hall that served as an employee room. It was where Hadley had left all of her things that morning when she'd arrived.

"Date night. There's this place down the street that does half-price wings and pints on Mondays so my boyfriend and I are going there."

"Sounds fun."

"Hopefully." He chuckled quietly and reached into one of the lockers that lined the wall. He pulled out a mesh bag through which Hadley could see a towel and a change of clothing. "Well, I'm going to hit the showers. See you tomorrow?"