Dive Shop Days

Gemma stood on the beach knee-deep in water and watched as tourists checked their breathing regulators and adjusted the fit of their wetsuits, all in preparation for another scuba trip.

"Gemma, quit standing around and help Marco load the pump boat."

“Okay,” she agreed half-heartedly.

Gemma spent the last few weeks learning the ropes down at the dive shop, helping customers try on scuba gear and readying pump boats for their afternoon trip.

Gemma walked up the beach and waited for Marco’s first command. Marco was too busy to notice.

"Ahem," she coughed.

"Hey, Gemma. What do you need?"

"Pidro sent me over here to help you get ready for afternoon launch."

"Run to the Dive Shop and get a new regulator. This one’s broken."

Gemma ran all the way to the Dive Shop, where Marcella was busy helping customers.

"Can I help you with something, Gemma?" she asked.

Gemma showed Marcella the broken regulator. Marcella took it and gave her two replacements. Gemma quickly returned to the beach.

"Here you go! Marcella gave me two."

Marco tested each regulator,.

"It looks like they both work. I’ll take this other one just in case."

"What do you need me to do next?"

"There’s not much left. Are you going with us?"

"I don’t know. Pidro didn’t say anything about it."

"He won’t unless you ask him."

Gemma walked over to the dock where Pidro was working on the boat’s engine. He seemed too busy to be bothered. Gemma stood idly by his side.

"Gemma, when you said you wanted to work here, I thought you really meant it."

"I do. I just had a question." She waited for Pidro to respond. When he didn’t, she frowned.

"Well, what is it?"

"Can I go diving with you and Marco today?"

"Not today."

"Why?"

"It’s because you’re too small to go scuba diving."

"Am not."

"You are too."

"Am not."

"Okay, I’ll make a deal with you. If you can suit up into an oxygen tank and get on the pump boat, then I’ll let you go."

Gemma went inside and emerged from the Dive Shop dressed in scuba gear. She looked like a penguin, dressed head-to-toe in black.

"You’re halfway there. Now put on a tank."

Gemma strode confidently over to the oxygen tanks and looked them over. She picked out the blue one, which she thought was the prettiest. She carefully leaned it upright and began to lift it off the ground.

Within seconds, she knew this was going to be some task. The oxygen tank weighed more than a bag of rice. She grunted and groaned, straining to get it onto her back. She bent sideways and used her hips as a fulcrum, balancing it as she put her arms in the straps.

Gemma put on the scuba outfit, just as Pidro asked. Unfortunately, she still had to make her way from the picnic table to the pumpboat.

She took careful steps down the beach, bent halfway over. After a few moments of struggling under the weight of the oxygen tank, she made it to the boat.

"Now get on the boat."

Gemma groaned.

"Pidro, let her alone. She did everything you asked. Anyway, there are smaller oxygen tanks in the shop.”

"I’m not making an exception for her. There’s too much that could go wrong. Marcella needs her help inside the Dive Shop anyway."

"Maybe when you get a little bigger," said Marco.

Against her wishes, Pidro helped Gemma out of the oxygen tank.

"I promise that you’ll get to go the moment I think you can do it, but not before, okay?"

"Okay," said Gemma as tears welled in her eyes.

"I still love you. That’s why I’m so hard on you, okay? Now go help Marcella. We’re going snorkeling tomorrow and you’re invited."

"Yippee!"

"But this afternoon I need you to help Marcella, okay?"

"Okay."

"That’s my girl," said Pidro. He grabbed his little sister by the ears and gently kissed her forehead. Gemma watched Pidro and Marco as they finished preparing for the afternoon launch.

When she returned to the Dive Shop, a line of people waited inside.

"Oh good, you’re here," said Marcella.

"What do you need me to do?"

"If you could answer the phones, that would be plenty."

Gemma climbed up on her stool next to Marcella. The phone rang and she picked it up.

"Magandang Tanghali po! Good afternoon, Shoreline Dive Club, How may I help you?"

While she answered the phone, Marcella assisted customers at the other end of the counter.

"We have Jet Skis, surfboards, and sailboards for rent until sunset."

The voice muttered on the other end.

"We’re open until sunset. We’ll see you soon!"

Josie showed up at the Dive Shop to help when the pump boat returned. As the sun disappeared over the horizon, the girls moved the kayaks into the boat house. Gemma strung a heavy chain through the boats and locked them together. Then, Gemma and Josie fetched the sand-covered life jackets from the boat house and held them up as Marcella used a hose to spray them clean. Afterwards, they hung the jackets over the rafters to dry.

Gemma and Josie helped Marcella organize the Dive Shop. Marcella counted the pesos in the cash drawer while Josie arranged clothes on the racks and Gemma ran the sweeper and put it away.

"What now?" asked Gemma.

"Now we wait for your brother and my boyfriend to come home," said Josie.

"Marco is your boyfriend?" asked Gemma.

"No silly. Pidro is my boyfriend."

"Oh really?"

"It’s official. I told Pidro he’d either have to be my boyfriend or I was going to find another surfer boy to hang out with."

"What did he say?"

"He asked me to be his girlfriend, of course."

Gemma and Marcella laughed at Josie, who just smiled slyly. Marcella closed the front door and changed the sign from "Open" to "Closed."

They returned to the picnic table, where Josie showed Gemma how to braid leather, making more craft gifts for her Burloloy stand.

"Why don’t you sell your burloloy here instead of Mercado Pier?"

"Nobody here would want burloloy. They’re more interested in scuba equipment."

"How do you know if you don’t try?"

Josie shrugged.

"We will have a little talk with your boyfriend when he returns," said Gemma.

As Pidro and Marco returned, Gemma ran into the surf to greet them. Marco jumped out of the boat with a tow rope tugged the boat onto the shore.

"Why are you so perky?" asked Pidro.

"I know a secret," whispered Gemma.

"Oh yeah? Are you going to tell us?"

"I don’t know if I can trust you,”

"You can trust me, right?" asked Marco.

"I guess so."

"Whisper it in my ear and then I’ll decide whether Pidro is worthy to hear your secret."

Gemma stood on her tiptoes and whispered into Marco’s ear.

"Pidro’s in love? How could this be? I am always around him. Who is the lucky girl?”

Gemma whispered in Marco’s ear again. Pidro glared at her.

"Don’t blame me! Blame your girlfriend!" Gemma pointed at Josie. Pidro’s face turned bright red.

"And you were worried that she wasn’t going to talk to you," one of the tourists said to Pidro, "I guess you should have worried that she was going to talk about you instead."

Everyone unloaded their gear and went to the boat house. After closing time, Josie said goodbye to Pidro and Gemma, then walked down the beach towards her apartment near Mercado Pier. Pidro and Gemma got on the motorcycle and sped home.

Pidro’s motorcycle bumped along the gravel roads. Gemma held on tight. The motorcycle turned into the driveway and pulled up behind the house. After a long day, she was ready to be home.

"I can’t wait to share my little secret."

"Gemma...let’s keep it our little secret, okay?"

Just then, Mrs. Cruz came out the front door.

"What is your little secret?"

"It’s nothing, Mom."

Mrs. Cruz looked her children up and down.

"Is this about Pidro and Josie?”

Pidro blushed once again.

“You kids must think I was born in a cave. Why do you think Pidro goes out on his motorcycle after dropping you off?"

Gemma shrugged her shoulders.

"It’s because he’s a boy in love. I knew the moment he brought her home for dinner. Now you kids get to bed."

Gemma and Pidro washed and went to bed. Gemma stared into the darkness and wondered what other secrets her mother knew.

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