Shelly in Cancun 14 – The case
I awaken to the humidity of a Southern climate and the warmth of the morning sun beating down on me. I quickly realize I’m not in my bed. I’m lying in sand underneath some palm fronds.
It all comes back to me… the storm…being dragged under by the rigging from the sailboat… Andria foolishly coming down to rescue me… the two of us clinging to the broken mast and being tossed around by the waves. Then I realize I’m lying right next to her warm body. I shake her awake.
“Andria? Baby; you all right??”
She moans and stirs as she turns toward me. Her eyes flutter open. “Shelly?” she gasps anxiously.
We both sit up and hug each other, shaking the fronds off our bodies. Then we stand up and take stock of our situation.
Somehow our skimpy bikinis remain intact. We’re on the edge of an isolated section of beach. The main harbor into Cancun sits a couple of miles south of us. The broken mast we rode in on lies a few yards further down the beach.
I vaguely remember coming ashore. We found some scattered leaves that the storm blew out of the trees. I also vaguely recall the two of us being too tired to do much of anything else other than dragging them with us before collapsing onto the ground as far away from high tide as possible, weakly pulling them over the top of us as we cuddled up against each other.
“Jake!” Andria gasps. “We gotta find him!”
“Maybe he made it back to our bungalow,” I suggest hopefully. Together the two of us begin our trek down the beach back toward civilization.
Debris is everywhere, much of it being the leaves and fronds off the trees along the edge of the beach. It takes nearly an hour before we’re back on that familiar stretch of sand we sunbathed on two days ago when we first got here.
We look like a couple of stupid American female tourists strolling along the beach in our skimpy bikinis while everyone else cleans up. We quickly head for the bungalow. We’re both anxious about Andria’s boyfriend Jake.
The bungalow looks intact for the most part. We start hollering out his name as we run to the door. It’s unlocked.
We burst inside, looking all around as we call out his name. But the place is empty. He’s not inside.
“Where could he be?” Andria asks fearfully. “You don’t suppose he fell out of the raft and drowned, do you?”
“He’s fine,” I tell her, gathering her up in my arms and holding on to her. I’m not certain of that fact. But there’s no point assuming the worst.
“We gotta FIND him, ‘Shel’!” She tries to wrench out of my grasp. But I hold onto her.
I give her shoulders a gentle shake. “He KNOWS where the bungalow is, babe! We need to stay in one place for a while. That will give him a chance to find US, ok?”
“But SHELLY??”
“You KNOW I’m right, Andria! This is a good time to calm down, take a good hot shower and get into a change of clothes, don’t you think?” Then I look into her eyes.
“We’ll stay put and give him a couple of hours, ok? THEN we’ll go look for him. Think about it! What if he comes back, only to find out we both went out looking for him?”
Andria looks at me and takes a deep breath. “You’re right, ‘Shel’”, she admits with a heavy sigh and a nod. Then she gets this determined look on her face.
“But ONLY for a couple of hours, ok? Then I’m going out to look for him!”
“Ok,” I agree. “That will give us time to call a couple of places and see if he’s turned up anywhere… like the hospital or the Red Cross or something.”
Andria wants to start calling right now. But I push her toward her separate bathroom, telling her she needs a nice hot bath or a shower so she’ll feel better when we get ready to start the search. Then I head toward my own bathroom and start myself a hot soothing bath, hoping we’ll eventually find Jake alive and well…
—–
The bath is just what the doctor ordered. A half hour later I feel much better. But the whole time I keep an ear open, hoping I won’t hear the door slam shut, indicating Andria has gone out on her own to look for him. I also realize how hungry I am, being as how we haven’t eaten since we had lunch yesterday back on the sailboat.
When finally I emerge from my bedroom I’m dressed in a light yellow shirt and shorts along with a pair of socks and sneakers. Andria is sitting down near the phone. She’s dressed in a light blue shirt, matching shorts and tennis shoes.
She’s glum as she tells me, “The phone is working, ‘Shel’. So I placed a couple of calls. No one has seen or heard from Jake. I want to go out right now and look for him!”
I tell her, “Let’s give him another half hour; ok? Remember? We were way down the beach when we came ashore. It took us a while to walk back. I just don’t want us to be gone when he walks in through the door.”
“He’s not going to just ‘walk in through the door’, ‘Shel’! What if he’s out there hurt somewhere?! Ohmygawd, Shelly; what if he fell out of the raft and DROWNED??”
The door suddenly opens. Amazingly, it’s Jake who walks in. His face is grim as though something serious is on his mind.
He catches sight of us staring at him in complete shock. In an instant his jaw drops in utter astonishment. “ANDRIA? SHELLY??” He’s totally astonished.
“JAKE!”
Andria screams in shocked delight as she jumps up and runs into his arms. I breathe a sigh of relief, grateful we’re all safe and sound. Then I get up and walk over to them, the three of us happily hugging each other.
We all start talking so fast that we nearly walk over each other’s words…
“What HAPPENED to you two…?” “I got caught in some rope and the ship dragged me down…!” “I saw Shelly go down with the ship and I just couldn’t leave her, Jake!” “You crazy bitch, you could have gotten yourself killed! The wind swept me into the harbor and I lost sight of you both…” “Yeah? Well your stupid girlfriend came after me and nearly drowned herself getting me loose! When we came back up you were gone and we hung onto a piece of the mast until we blew into shore…” “We landed on the beach, honey, and we fell asleep under some leaves! We had to walk a long way just to get back here!”
“We were just about to go out looking for you when you walked in, Jake. Where the hell have you been?”
“Well I’ve been looking all over for you two girls! You see I’m in big trouble. I really need your help.”
“Trouble?” Andria says. “What KIND of trouble?”
“Is it about the sailboat?” I ask. “Won’t the insurance cover the loss?”
“It’s not about the insurance,” Jake replies, anxiety in his voice. “We’ve got to find that sailboat and make a dive! We’ve got to do it right now, girls! I’ve got to get something out of there… and fast!”
“Get what, Jake?” Andria asks in disbelief. “You can’t MEAN that, can you? What the hell is so important on that damned boat? Shelly nearly DROWNED because you waited out there by that reef too long, you fucking MORON!”
In a flash it occurs to me. I’m pretty sure I know exactly what he’s after. “What’s in the case, Jake?” I ask quietly, looking carefully at him.
His inability to look me in the eye and the guilty expression on his face says it all. “I can’t tell you that, Shelly,” he says quietly. “You don’t want to know.”
Andria looks at me and then back at her boyfriend in confusion. “Jake?”
I see a flash of shocked revelation in her eyes. That’s when I know she’s come to the same conclusion I have. “NO!” she gasps in horror. “When we threw Shelly over the side, I said that as a JOKE! You’re not actually a fucking DRUG DEALER; are you, Jake??”
Andria shakes her head in disbelief. She takes a couple of steps backward from her boyfriend as though carefully backing away from a poisonous snake. She keeps saying “No – it CAN’T be!” That’s when I get a sick feeling in the pit of my gut.
“I’m NOT a drug dealer!” he says anxiously. “I just… I just… Look! You girls have got to help me, ok? You know I can’t make the swim down to the boat on my own! I’m not as good a swimmer as either one of you. And I don’t know how to scuba dive, ok?”
At that moment my mind is made up. “We’re not helping you, Jake,” I say firmly, and I back away from him as well. “C’mon, Andria! We’re packing up and flying out of here right now!” Then I glare at him before adding, “You’re on your own, you stupid bastard!”
Andria stands there shaking her head in shock and horror. She looks like she doesn’t want to move. But she can’t just stand there either.
“Jake; what have you DONE?” she finally gasps, her face deathly pale. “The boat… all that money we spent back in the states… this trip? You mean it’s all paid for with…?”
She can’t bring herself to say it. I see tears well up in her eyes.
“I did it for YOU, Andria!” he says desperately. “I did it for US, baby! I just need your help on this one thing is all!”
“You can’t help him, Andria,” I warn her. I feel like I’m going to start hyperventilating any second now. Things have just gone from bad to worse.
“We can’t risk going out there with him. You know that; right? Someone bad could show up. One of us could get stuck down there and drown!”
I nervously look all around, half-expecting a bunch of drug runners to come bursting through the door to gun us down for losing their shipment. Gawd! How could Jake be so fucking STUPID, messing around with drug dealers like that?
I grab Andria by the arm. “C’mon. We’ve got to go NOW! I’ll call the airport and see about getting us on the next flight out; ok?” Now I want out of Cancun in the worst way.
“But Shelly??” Andria gasps uncertainly, looking from Jake to me and then back to Jake again. “I don’t… I don’t know…”
“Babe, you’ve got to help me!” Jake pleads as he takes a step toward her. “If you don’t do this, they’ll KILL me!”
He looks right at me. It’s as if I know what he’s going to say next. “Shelly, if we don’t get that case back to them, they’ll kill us all!”
Damn! I hate being right about this one!
He turns to his girlfriend and starts begging. It’s pitiful… pathetic. “Andria? Honey? Please! I can’t do it without you, baby! They’ll kill me if I don’t get the case back to them. And I have to do it today!”
Andria looks back and forth between Jake and I. I see the fear etched in her face. Then she takes a deep breath as though she’s come to a decision.
“Ok, Jake; I’ll help you.” There’s resignation in her voice.
FUCK!
“Andria… NO! You can’t!”
I’m firmly convinced if Andria does help him, this is not going to end well for any of us. I can see how badly shaken she is. But I’m not surprised at what she says next, even though her voice is trembling…
“Get out of here, ‘Shel’! You should pack up and fly back without us, ok? Get the hell out of Cancun! I’ll stay behind long enough to help Jake get his case back.”
“Andria; no!”
I’m horrified. I should’ve known this was coming, damn her! It’s just like Andria!
I shake my head as I tell her, “You can’t stay here and help him, babe! It’s much too dangerous.”
“I can’t just leave him like this, ‘Shel’! But you should go! I don’t want anything happening to you!”
SHIT!!
In an instant I know I can’t leave either, knowing Andria will be going down to that damn boat by herself. I just can’t fly back until I’m certain she’ll be safe. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if something happened to her.
I give Jake my angriest glare. “All right, damn you! I guess we’ll both go and help you. But it’s the last time I ever want to see your face. You got that?”
“Shelly… NO!” Andria blurts out in alarm.
She sees the grim determination in my face. Tears of gratitude well up in her eyes as she acknowledges what she’s suspected all along. I can’t leave without her any more than she could leave without me.
A moment later I can tell by the look in her eyes that she fully realizes what this means. So she tries one last time. “Please, Shelly. Go home… for my sake, ok? I can’t bear the thought of something happening to you because you stayed on my account. Please?”
“I’m not leaving without you,” I tell her sternly.
Andria gets this haunted look in her eyes. Then she looks angrily at Jake. She’s not happy, knowing if anything should happen to me it’ll be because I refused to go since she’s staying behind to help her boyfriend.
“Jake?”
I can see the conflict inside her. She wants him to embrace her with words of encouragement. At the same time, she’s mad at him for putting her in this spot.
“It’ll work out fine,” he tells her. “Nothing will happen, ok? We’ll get the case back up, I’ll get it delivered, and everything will be all right.”
I glare at him as a mixture of fear and anger boil up inside me. “Once we get that fucking case out of that damn boat, you’d better make damn sure Andria and I are both on the next flight out of the fucking country! You GOT THAT?” I’m livid, barely able to contain my fury with him.
“Agreed,” he says quietly with a nod, properly chastised upon seeing the anger in my face. “But only Andria goes down after the case, ok?”
Does he trust his girlfriend more? Or is it that he just doesn’t want me handling it? I can’t be certain, but it doesn’t really matter either way.
He tells her, “Why don’t you go get changed into something you can dive in; ok, honey?” He reaches out to touch her affectionately. But she recoils from his hand. She’s angry with him for putting our lives in jeopardy, especially mine.
She dejectedly heads back toward their bedroom to change. I turn and head toward mine to change too, just in case I have to dive down after her. But I can’t help turning to look back at Jake, almost as if I don’t want to turn my back on him.
There’s something in his eyes that bothers me as he looks back at me. I find myself wondering just how much he actually loves Andria. I have the uneasy feeling that it’s not nearly as much as I do and my hunger is momentarily forgotten as I go into my room and pick out another swimsuit…
—–
We come out of our respective bedrooms. Andria is in a white bikini, while I’m sporting a red one. Jake is glad we’re going down to the marina in our swimsuits so as not to attract any undue attention. He says it’ll look better if we look like a couple of sexy tourists going out for a pleasure cruise. But I’m not reassured.
We soon discover he’s already rented a 34 footer for the occasion. I give him a dirty look. I get the distinct impression he planned on the two of us going out with him from the very beginning, just to help him find his sunken sailboat and retrieve his precious case. My distrust of him grows by leaps and bounds.
The guy at the dock tells him he did what he could to furnish his boat for him as per his requests. Jake nods and thanks him.
Andria doesn’t say much. She still appears to be shaken up over this horrible revelation about her boyfriend. I silently vow that if anything bad happens to my roommate, he’s going to wish he’d never brought me along with them to Cancun.
I get the uneasy feeling that we’re being watched as we walk to the end of the dock. But Jake’s pleasure craft is waiting for us, just like the guy said it would be. We all climb aboard without incident.
He unties the lines before starting the motor. We soon pull away from the dock. The three of us quickly motor out of the harbor.
Andria and I sit on the bench seat near the back of the boat. Neither one of us says anything. I can’t help thinking about yesterday, Jake’s decision to wait for that other boat, and the case we’re now going after.
It suddenly throws suspicion on Almonte and his girls. I have to wonder about the true nature of their sudden arrival that day. I sigh heavily, shaking my head.
Jake’s got a tracking device with the frequency for the signal to the sailboat that went down last night. He seems to zero in on its location right away. Thankfully it only takes twenty minutes or so for us to find the damn thing.
It isn’t long until he’s turned off the motor. We anchor right above it. Jake looks all around, confirming we’re the only boat out in the immediate vicinity.
There are other boats on the water. But so far none of them seem the least bit interested in what we’re doing out here. I hope it stays that way and that none of his druggie friends come out to have a look. I also hope for our sakes that the authorities don’t come nosing around either
“It’s about 35 or 40 feet down,” he observes, checking his readings as he looks down over the side of the boat. “It’s right there; I can even see it. It’s a little murky down there, but it should be clear enough. The case will be a little heavy. But the guy back at the dock gave me some rope so I can help you pull it back up.”
He looks over at Andria. Then he tells her, “There shouldn’t be any problems, babe. The guy was supposed to stow some diving gear on board for me. It should be right there inside that storage compartment.”
I look over the side where I can actually see the boat lying on its side. The water does look a little murky around the sunken craft. Thankfully it looks like it should not pose too much of a problem. I still don’t like the idea of Andria going down alone. But at least the conditions are halfway decent.
Jake starts to pull out a hefty length of nylon rope. Andria opens up the compartment. The only thing she finds inside is a solitary blue dive mask, a pair of blue dive fins, a weight belt, and a yellow bottle of spare air. There’s no sign of any dive tank.
I’m sarcastic as I ask, “So where the hell’s the scuba gear, hotshot?”
Andria stares at the contents in alarm. Jake explodes in fury. He spews obscenities as he threatens to kick the guy’s ass all over the marina once we get back.
His outburst seems just a bit contrived to me. Then he starts apologizing over and over again to his girlfriend. He tells her he suspects the bastard ran out of rental gear and fitted the boat with the only things he had on hand due to the many other rentals instigated by the havoc the storm wreaked the night before.
Andria looks at the gear for a long moment before she starts to pull it out. “I can do this,” she says carefully. Then she starts strapping the dive fins onto her feet as she asks, “So where’s the case located, Jake?”
“Like HELL you are!” I state firmly. “You’re not doing ANYTHING! I’m NOT letting you go down into that mess of a wreck with nothing but a miserable bottle of spare air! Besides, the fucking thing is lying on its side! You could get hung up in there!”
“She can do this, Shelly,” he says encouragingly as she straps the weight belt around her waist. “After all, it’s in that little storage cabinet just down the steps off the main deck. She won’t have to go any further than that. She’ll be in and then right back out.”
“How the HELL can you make her do this?” I sputter angrily.
“Relax, ‘Shel’; he’s not ‘making me’,” Andria calmly tells me, gently touching my arm. But despite her bravado, I can see she’s trembling a little.
“This’ll be a piece of cake,” she says with a smile. “I can do this! I’ll be back up with the case before you both know I’m gone!”
Jake hands her the end of the nylon rope as she adjusts the dive mask over her face. I’m still not happy about all this. But I feel like it’s out of my hands now.
Andria places the spare air in her mouth. She takes a breath to make sure it’s working. Then she nods as she pulls it back out.
“Works fine,” she says cheerfully. Then she nods in my direction as she tells me, “Don’t worry, ‘Shel’. I’ll be right back!”
She puts the mouthpiece to the spare air bottle back between her lips. I look at her solemnly as I tell her, “You got three and a half minutes! Time her, Jake!”
As he checks his watch, she gives us both a thumbs up while one hand holds the end of the rope. Then she grabs both her dive mask and the spare air bottle. She holds onto to them so they won’t be ripped off when she makes the plunge.
Andria steps onto the ledge on the back of the boat. Then she steps off into the water with a splash. With a flip of her legs she heads down toward the sailboat as Jake plays out the nylon rope for her.
2009; 2021 (written May 15 ’09; ed. Jun 13 ‘21 by riwa)