“Wow!” he says, clicking the old-fashioned camera hanging around his neck to photograph the various sea creatures floating past him. “Terrific!” The sea is warm, maybe 88 degrees? “I’m breathing like an Atlantean of old!” he exclaims. There’s light everywhere, green- and gold- and teal- and real proper blue-filtered shafts stabbing through the water wherever you look. A group of spiny fish burst from a nearby reef and scatter in a hundred flashing directions. “Everything’s happening again!”

“This reminds me of something I saw in Mexico once, just not in the normal sense of Mexico.”

“Wait until Tammy sees these!”

“Massive, massive quantities of wonder!”

“It doesn’t get any better than this!”

He watches a squid battle fiercely and, ultimately, unsuccessfully against the attentions of a heavy-necked plesiosaur. He takes more pictures.

“A HEART OF STONE, THIS ONE’S GOT. SPLENDID AND TERRIBLE. JUST ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT A KISS, IS THE TRUTH ABOUT GETTING EATEN ALIVE. AND IT’S ALL GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN.”

“Warm as a bath down here! Ocean’s here as shallow and warm and full of life as a good woman’s heart, and warm as a bath, too! A good woman’s a lot like a bath: Easy to draw, and you never want to get out. Wow!”

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