The Light of the Blue Pearl by K.C. HAWKE

was the most stunning lagoon;
shaped into a perfect circle, located in the middle of nowhere,
with coral surrounding water with the deepest color of blue she had
ever seen. For some reason seeing the sight before her made her
gasp; there was something about the color of this place that gave
her goose bumps and her heart started to pound.
    The boat made its way inside the circle and
came to a stop, docking next to something to keep them from
drifting.
    “So? What do you think?” Lily asked.
    “It’s beautiful,” Ethne replied, still
looking out at the turquoise water that surrounded the deep
blue.
    “Where are we?” Ethne asked, seeming a bit
distant.
    “This is the Great Blue Hole,” Peter said.
“Isn’t it amazing?”
    “Yeah…it is,” she replied, before following
up with another question she was suddenly afraid of getting an
answer to. “So…I’m supposed to snorkel here?” Ethne asked, feeling
a lump form in her throat.
    “Yup,” Lily replied, smiling and pulling out
their gear.
    Ethne, having absolutely no experience in
anything having to do with water that wasn’t contained inside a
swimming pool, looked out again at the large expanse before
her.
    “Is it safe?” she asked. “It looks so….deep.
Are there any sharks or anything?” she asked weakly, feeling her
knees start to shake a bit.
    “Oh don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe, people
come here to dive all the time,” Peter replied.
    “Die?!” she said. “People come here to
die?!”
    He laughed. “No, no…dive. With a ‘v’.”
    “Oh,” she said, not feeling that much better
even given the correction.
    Having come prepared for a snorkeling trip,
as the note had instructed her to do, she reluctantly started
taking off her clothes revealing the swimsuit that had been packed
for her.
    “Have you ever gone snorkeling or diving
before?” Peter asked.
    “No…I haven’t,” she replied.
    “Okay, not a problem. I will walk you
through everything and I will be right next to you the whole time,”
Peter said with a reassuring wink.
    After a few minutes of instruction and help
getting the mask on she was ready to get in the water.
    She couldn’t believe she was doing this.
True, the place was beautiful, breathtaking really. But still, she
was in the middle of nowhere, in a swimsuit, jumping into what she
could only imagine was a bottomless pit.
    The water was deep in color. She knew the
color was only a hint of its true depth, and was afraid to ask how
far down it actually went.
    Peter got into the water first and motioned
for her to do the same.
    As she eased herself into the crystal blue
water, she felt it envelop her heart and soul. Though her head was
kept above water, the warmth beneath the surface surrounded her and
made her feel…safe. That was the best way she could describe
it.
    While the expanse had made her nervous and
the thought of how deep this lagoon was, she was somehow
surprisingly comforted being in it.
    With her mask on she saw Peter motion for
her to put her head in. She nodded an okay and opened her eyes
beneath the water to reveal everything she couldn’t see before.
    While there weren’t many fish to see, the
colors of the corals as well as the light coming from above were a
brilliance she hadn’t expected.
    But there was something more to this spot
than just the beautiful colors. She didn’t know why, but even with
all of her initial anxiety she suddenly felt no anxiety at all and
was perfectly at ease in her surroundings.
    After guiding her around a while and seeing
what marine life they could, he motioned for her to return to the
boat.
    But, just as she turned to follow him, Ethne
saw something shimmering on one of the shelves of the coral reef.
Peter was already making his way back and she should have followed,
but the light was drawing her to it.
    As she got closer she saw that it was a
perfectly round blue pearl. Peculiar that it was just sitting there
on its own, but quite a find she felt as she