The Day Before

“The rope…won’t be a liability…right?” I asked cautiously. I held the lengthy, bulky, neon yellow cords in my hand.

Eli looked down at the green sloshing water. His face pinched up in disgust as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“Hope not.” he mumbled. He grabbed the rope and tied it around his waist, once, twice, then three times. He tied the knot, then did a loop and gave me the heavy pile of neon.

He exhaled through his nose, “Alright. Here’s what I have to say. If I don’t come up after five minutes, let go of the rope.” My eyes widened at that. No way was I going to do it. “And if you don’t, I know how to untie this, Violet. Just saying.” He held his hands up, like the cops had told him to put his hands in the air.

“You see the ceiling panels that we uncovered just now?” He pointed at each of them. “I’ll be coming up for air, at all those points…” he kept talking, as he was explaining the game plan, I couldn’t help but think.

He’s really got this. He knows what he’s doing. Leave him to it. He doesn’t want you to help…

“And, you’re not listening to anything I just said.” Eli snapped, loud enough for me to stop my self assuring.

“I-I-I, points-- air-- swim--” I said glumly. Great, now I couldn’t form coherent sentences.

He let out a sigh and for the second time today, ran a hand through his hair. He looked straight at me, grabbed my shoulder and pulled me in front of his face. “And remember, don’t come after me.” he said it quietly and slowly, so I could feel his warm breath on my cheek with every word he said.

I just gave him a tight lipped smile and carefully moved away, even though in the inside I was screaming at how close I had been with him. He had light brown eyes that glowed, and he wasn’t as skinny as the first day I saw him.

I heard a splash, the neon yellow rope making it’s way down the ceiling hole, until it pooled on the surface--where Eli had dived into. And so, I was alone, holding on lightly to the coils of the rope, it was always moving, never stopping.

After five minutes of him not coming up for air, I prepared myself to dive in. I took off my shoes, threw the coil of rope under some ceiling tiles. I peered over the hole where Eli had started his little adventure. It stunk badly of sea water and plant life. It looked clear enough to see through underwater--something I hadn’t even thought of when we were discussing our game plan. I nodded my head slowly to myself. Whatever he said, doesn’t apply right now.

I held my breath and dived in, feeling the cold water strike throughout the whole of my body. I didn’t bother to tie my hair back and I regretted it, because it was all over my face. I pulled it back, only to see dim light all around, and the I saw the mall underwater. Bright colors of clothes, make up, wires, floating around aimlessly like ghosts. I passed by concrete pillars and stores and other dangers. There were no fish, no bright lights, no life. So many materials were piled up to the top of the roof, things I didn’t bother to see when I dived down. I swam, my eyes burning from the amount of saltwater. Bubbles formed whenever I moved, I opened eyes quickly, trying to follow the neon yellow rope.

I was running out of breath and fast. I needed to get up, quickly. So, like a jellyfish, I did some awkward movements with my limbs until I saw the bright light shining through the square opening. As soon as I broke through the water’s surface I gulped a mouthful of air and went back down, more confident about trying to find Eli. I used my legs to propel me forward, now, not even caring about my burning eyeballs.

As I neared my way through the next opening of ‘points’ Eli selected, I saw the food court; the tables were still in place since they were attached to the floor. Some chairs floated up to the sky roof and others were toppled over, resting on the ground. And in the midst of all this I saw a great big yellow and black, plastic thing moving back and forth frantically. I swum even faster, kicking my legs which produced bubbles by the million. I saw Eli struggling with an overturned chair, the neon rope tangled on its leg. I tapped Eli on the shoulder and he swung a punch, but it was very slow, since we were underwater. I strained my eyes at him, and grabbed him by the shoulder. He looked at me, rage filled in his eyes, I shook my head hoping that he had gotten the message: That we didn’t have time for this. I grabbed the rope blindly and started pulling. I was quickly losing air from the all the work, I had been doing and I noticed Eli wasn’t in top shape either. I grabbed the chair-- heavier than it looked for a Food court chair.

Eli had already figured out my plan and started to help me with the chair, but he had been underwater far more than I had, so I frantically pushed him away and pointed to the identical square opening I had used. He looked at me and then swam straight up, leaving a trail of bubbles and neon rope in his wake. I slowly swam feeling the rope tighten at the distance Eli had left. Was he up? Did he actually listen to me? I was losing air, again. I could feel it. My arms were getting tired of the weight, but I kept swimming upwards. The rope was now loosening up, I felt a little part of me jump up in joy, my arms ready to drop the heavy thing and open my mouth to delicious air. But then I thought of two choices: either Eli is coming back still stuck with his stupid rope, or he had actually been freed. I saw his shadow coming back down, no rope around his waste this time, and I swear, I dropped the chair so fast that I thought I was going to go down with it. I swam past him, his shocked face zooming right by me. I felt the point of no air in my system until a second later I was gasping and coughing, shakily pulling myself up to drywall ceiling. I laid on it, my whole body shaking from the cold and tiredness of it all. I heard Eli come up and I braced myself for the yelling and the anger.

“What the fuck.” Eli said to my back. I heard his sucking footsteps and the water dripping off of his body, I could hear the cold in his voice, the anger in it. I shakily got up, teeth chattering, high on anger just as he was.

“I couldn’t leave you down there!” I yelled at him, my voice hoarse. Here we go.

“I told you to let go of the rope after five minutes!” he acidly said.

“I didn’t say I was going to do it.” I said, still seething with anger.

“I-” his mouth was suspended in the air, realization hitting him.

“That gave you no reason to do something as stupid as that-”

“Shut up, Eli! You do stupid stuff like this, yet, when I do it, you go on an angry rampage!” I screamed at him, every inch of anger that I had piled up had broken through and I couldn’t deal with it anymore. “It’s just…it’s not even…” I trailed off, my explosion was short lived and now, I didn’t know what to say. Great.

I turned around, walking away in a huff, my wet footsteps making the same sucking sounds as Eli’s did. I sat Indian style on flooring, back turned, arms crossed, head held high, shoulders squared, nose pointed upward, the epitome of being a snob. Eli and I didn’t talk after that. I just heard the rustling of plastic, Eli’s gulps of air, and then ‘whoosh’ noises. After a moment of opening my eyes, I noticed that he was in front of me. I didn’t even hear his watery footsteps sucking on the floor. His eyes staring at me, his mouth on the nozzle of the flat looking black and yellow raft. As if to say: Look at all the work I’m doing. And what are you doing? Nothing, that’s what. My shoulders fell, my head along with it, my arms unfolded themselves, and I felt like the worst person that you could be stuck with when the world ended, or, well, when a disaster struck.

I opened my mouth to apologize, but Eli just flung the raft at me, the flat thing hitting me like a rolled-up towel. He pointed at the other nozzle on it, his head then proceeded to face away from me. His hand holding up his head, anger and annoyance radiating through his being.

And I knew that we were going to have a lot more moments like these in the near future, as I started to blow air onto my part of the raft.