Look For What's Different

Rich lowers himself into the shaft, and descends quickly.

Cristian is waiting at the bottom.

What's going on here? asks Cristian.

How should I know? says Rich. You're lucky the box didn't fall on you.

Exactly, says Cristian. But it fell on the package of bottles.

What are they doing here? asks Rich.

I left them, says Cristian. So I had to come back.

Are they broken? asks Rich.

Not all of them, says Cristian. Shine your light down here, will you.

What a mess. Broken glass at the bottom of the shaft.

And whose fault is it?

Probably the less said the better.

Where's Gaius? asks Rich, picking up slivers of broken bottle.

Left him in the lake cavern, says Cristian.

Errm, says Rich. Was that wise?

I told him not to move, says Cristian. But you're right. We should get going.

They leave the broken glass in a pile. They stuff their coverall pockets with the unbroken bottles, and proceed down the narrow passage to where Gaius is sitting.

No, not sitting.

He is stretched out flat on his stomach, his head protruding over the inky black bacterial infested water.

Ah, there you are, men, says Gaius. Perhaps you could help me. I have dropped my pencil.

In the water? says Cristian.

Yes, says Gaius. It happened as I was getting it out of my trouser pocket.

This won't do, says Cristian. The cave authorities are very strict about contamination.

Never mind, says Rich. We just won't tell them.

But I do need a pencil, says Gaius.

No, you don't says Rich. We need you to help us collect samples of flagellates. Here, have a bottle.

Gaius immediately forgets about the loss of his pencil. Flagellates! A bottle!

He lies down again on his stomach, and starts filling his bottle.

It's full. He holds it up to the light from his helmet.

A spider lowers itself down from the cave ceiling, and onto his head. Fwoof! It bounces up again.

See that? says Rich. A spider. You know what? I reckon it's one of those spiders that's related to the ones found in the Canary Islands. See if you can catch it.

Foolishly, the spider lowers itself once again.

.........

Arthur is bored at the top of the shaft in the middle of nowhere.

He fiddles with the key to the airtight trap door.

Perhaps he should try it.

He closes the lid, and locks it. It locks easily.

And unlocks again, easily.

Sweet.

He drops the key back in his pocket.

Lies in the grass, looking up at the sky.

How long will they stay down there?

He gets up again. Wanders over to the Jeep.

Cristian has left the keys in it.

Arthur wonders if he'd have time to drive back to the beach, to see what Proust is doing.

......

Proust is on the beach, sitting.

Albertine shakes drops of Black Sea from her body.

Some of the drops land on him.

They soak into the cotton of his shirt and his trousers.

He says: What did you see out there?

She says: Diatoms, dinoflagellates. Or so I believe. I do have sharp eyes.

He was not expecting that.

Not sea horses, blue fish, turbot, mussels and shipwrecks? he counters.

It's too easy to see those, she replies. That's why I look for what's different. Here, have your gear back.

Thank you, says Proust. But don't go yet.

He intends to tell her some interesting facts about himself: he is a microbiologist, he is a trained clown, he has recently eaten half a Camel Ball, which she may or may not know is bubblegum, and that now it is probably wrapped around his ........ no, maybe not that one.

A Jeep pulls up on the esplanade behind them.