Chapter 3

The fall sun was shining in the clear sky and I walked to the boat and stared at the large magnificent machinery in wonder. It looked as big as the Titanic. Well, actually, no, but it was big none the less.

"Hey, you're late," Jason came on the dock and smiled at me. "It's a beautiful day to go diving isn't it?"

I didn't answer. I just smiled and nodded. There was something I liked about this man. There was something about him. At the risk of making the same kind of brainwashing eye contact like we did last night, I refused to look into his eyes all together. I climbed onto the boat and landed on the beautiful deck.

"I bet the water is freezing," Jason said when the early fall breeze flew by.

Mornings this time of year were okey. Days were semi warm, and nights were cold. Just the way I liked the weather. It was mid September, and I was approaching my third year of not knowing myself. But every now and then I felt like I learned some stuff about my past. Like when I first took a gun into my hands, I knew how to use it. I assume I used to use guns before the memory loss. And now, I have never before been on a boat, but getting on it was like nature to me. Strange. I walked around a little to see if anything will jump out at me.

"Have you ever gone diving before?" Jason asked.

"I don't know." I looked at the captain pit and recognized everything. I could tell how to set the autopilot. I knew how to check out the GPS system. I even knew how to coordinate the dive charts. Actually, I walked over to the operative systems and set the autopilot to two hundred fifty mile east from the docks.

"You're been on boat's before, right? You're very good at this stuff, I can tell."

I turned to face him and his blue eyes were attracting me like magnets. Crazy how they had so much power over me. At the moment, I wondered if that was how Sam felt when looking into his eyes. "I don't know. This is the first time I'm on a boat but it seems like I've been on them before."

He gave me a confused grin and crossed his strong arms across his tight chest. "How would you know how to work a boat when you've never been on one?"

I knew I wouldn't get away with lying the way I usually did. For some reason, I couldn't lie to him. The words wouldn't come. So, it was time for the truth. "A couple of years ago I had an accident of some sort and I lost my memory. So, in those couple of years I haven't been on any boats, but prior to that I don't know. Strangely, I feel like I used to live on boats or something. I don't know why but if you were to ask me anything about boat engines or stuff, I'd probably know all there is to about them."

He smiled at me teasingly. "Okey, enough talk about boats, do you know how to dive?"

"I'm not sure, but instinct tells my I can dive like a real fish. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

He opened a closet and pulled out diving equipment. Once he gave me my diving suit and told me where I could change. I hurried off so I would have more time to dive and check out the locations.

Working this Sam McCall case was more exiting then I'd expected. It was only my first day on the job and I had already realized something about myself. I knew boats. I made a mental note to check for missing fisher women and possibly boat factory employees. Maybe then I would find myself.

When I had learned that I knew guns, I checked out for missing cops, but there were way too many. And missing criminals, the number was even larger. And then add missing law enforcement to the mix, and you've got a real PI's nightmare. But, I checked all of the results I got, and still didn't find myself. I remembered I was down when that happened, but now I realized a new hope. Water and boats.

I came out of the private changing room and saw that Jason has already set up the equipment.

"You're ready to go down?" he asked me while I fastened the ropes around me. The boat was already at the two hundred fifty mile mark, and it had stopped on the water waiting for me to do my job.

"I don't know. I'm not really a fearful person so I guess I've been born ready."

"That's good," he said while he gave me a wrist flashlight and a oxygen tank. When those were fastened I climbed over the rear of the boat. "Okey, when you're ready to be pulled up, just stick your head out."

I nodded. "What was Sam's boat's name?"

"JaSam."

"That's a cute name. Does it have a meaning?"

Jason smiled sadly as if remembering a pleasant memory which now had turned sad. "The Ja stands for Jason and the Sam stands for Sam. It's a combination of our names."

That was sad. I could tell that he loved her, and he'd never stop loving her. Just for his sake I hoped that she was alive. Then I plunged into the water.

The water was cold, freezing actually. I'd assume it was about fifty degrees. And despite the fridgitness, it felt great. I loved being inside the water. I dived down into the depths and about fifteen minutes later I was on the sandy, rocky ground watching around the surroundings. The flashlight I had was great. You shine it around and it shows you in a fifty mile distance. I flashed it to the east but the lighted areas didn't reveal mush except strangely interesting fish and exotic water plants. I flashed the light to the north and just like the east, it didn't show much. Then I moved it to the west and it fell upon my eyes.

It wasn't too close, but not too far either. I assume it was about forty miles away. I could see an old ship wreck and in a way I felt exited. It was possibly the ship we were looking for. But then again, that would mean that Samantha McCall drowned and I didn't want Mr. Morgan to loose hope.

True. When he talked to me he clearly indicated that she was dead, and that he wanted to give her a proper biaural rather then hold onto a hope that shouldn't be. But his body language didn't speak the same words as him mouth. I could tell the hope in his eyes. When he was telling me about a man being dead in the boat, he was actually happy. I guess that to him it meant that maybe Sam was alive.

Enough thinking, I told myself and I pushed myself up and swam to the surface. About fifteen minutes later, I was on the surface and Jason was pulling me up. Once I crossed my legs over the rim and stepped onto the deck, I took of my mask and took a breath of fresh air. Man, it felt good. I was definitely a water person and water was definitely in my past and possibly part of my identity.

"Find anything?"

I took another breath before I spoke, "There's a boat about forty miles west of here. We need to turn the boat around."

Jason didn't say anything, he just walked into the captain pit and I felt the motor working hard and the boat slowly turning. I looked up at the sky when a few seagulls flew by. God, I loved nature. It was so beautiful and fresh and secretive. It seemed like behind every corner there was something new.

Jason came out onto the deck when the boat was going straight. "Do you think it was Sam's boat you saw?"

"I don't really know. I'm looking for the boat that your old PI found. I figure I'm going to check if it belonged to Sam or to anyone else."

We didn't speak after that. He stood in silence watching the white puffy clouds sifting above his head. And I watched his body tense with every mile the boat went. I realized that he was scared shitless. He was afraid that if it were Sam's boat, that maybe she didn't survive. That maybe she really was dead. "It'll be okey." I put my hand on his arm and he glanced right into my eyes. At the contact of our skin, I felt electric heat shift into my body like an exotic wave of fluttering attraction. Damn, those magnetic eyes of his. "We'll find her. And who knows, maybe she isn't really dead." I broke the eye contact and took my hand away from his arm. I was afraid, and I never felt fear. Not after waking up and realizing I'm a nameless existence. But now I was scared. I was scared I was magnetically falling for a man who was in love with a ghost of yesterday. And I sure hoped that the ghost would develop into a vision of tomorrow, giving him a reason to live.

When the boat stopped, I climbed over the railing again and dived down. It took me about fifteen minutes to find myself at the bottom of the water and on the edge of a destroyed boat.

I noticed impossibilities immediately. First of all, the boat I landed on was weak and braking, and from the look of it, it looked like it's been at the bottom of the water for more then fifty years, maybe a hundred years. And the second impossibility was the name of the boat. I could clearly see it written on the boarding area on the dock, and the name was "Treasure Lure".

I should have gone up, it would have made perfect sense to go up and search in a different direction. But instead, I walked around the deck as if looking for sunken treasure. I walked inside the boarding area and looked inside of what seemed like a bedroom. I looked around and found nothing except for a soiled rock. Instinct told me to take it, and I relied on my instincts. So I took it. Come to think about it, the rock looked like it was composed of hardened soil, which meant that inside it might be a nice glittering center. Or so I thought at that moment. I knew I had to go up and examine it a little closer.

I got out of that area and stood on the deck of the boat. So if this wasn't Sam's, then were was hers? There was no point of pointing east, so I shone my flashlight to the west. Nothing. North. Nothing. South. Nothing. We were at a dead end, and I felt disappointed. But there was always logical thinking that would point to the right direction.

I pushed myself up and swam to the surface. Once Jason pulled me up, I stepped over the railing and pulled off my mask again. "Look what I found," I said excitedly while I showed him the rock.

"It looks like a rock," he said and shrugged and looked at me like I were crazy. Or maybe I was.

I smashed the rock onto the ground and it fell into many pieces. A sparkling middle shone brilliantly in the sun. I bend down to pick up the gold ring with the large yellow stone. I couldn't really tell if it were a dirty white diamond, or a rare yellow diamond. The stone needed washing. "It's a ring," I said to him and flashed the shiny thing in his face.

He took it from my hand and examined it. I could tell the wheels of his brain turning, but I couldn't read his mind. I knew he didn't want me to read his mind.

"You salvaged it," he said as he put the ring back in my hands.

Salvage. I made a mental note to look into missing salvagers. Maybe I would be one of them.

"Okey, so what exactly did you find down there, besides the ring?" He crossed his arms across his chest and stood firmly.

I looked up at him and smiled excitedly. I could see that even though his face was unreadable, deep inside he was exited. But strange problem, how did I know the inner workings of his thoughts? It's like I knew him, but how? "It was a different boat and it sunk a long time ago, at least fifty years. But do to the amount of soil on that ring it might have sunk more then a hundred years ago."

Jason smiled at me. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know, it's up to you. I'm guessing that when the GPS system failed, Sam didn't continue further east, but she didn't turn around and go west either. That leaves north and south. You choose?"

Without thinking, Jason said, "South."

"Okey then, I'll go turn the boat south and we'll go about a hundred miles and then I'll dive again," I said, "Oh, and here, take the ring so I don't loose it. It might be worth something."

---

Jason couldn't help but smile, and deep inside he was laughing. He looked at the ring he was holding and then glanced down at the ropes that were down inside the water. All morning long, he felt like Sam was alive, and close by, extremely close by.

Was it just a coincidence that Cirra and Sam had similar eyes? Was it a coincidence that Jason felt Sam's heart beating every time Cirra was close by? Was it a coincidence Cirra salvaged a soiled rock, just like Sam used to? Was it just a coincidence that when she touched his arm it felt Sam's touch?

Jason didn't know the answers to those questions, but he was going to find out. Before he could accuse himself of jumping the boat, he made a mental note that they still need to search for Sam. Just because Cirra had many of her similarities, didn't mean she was Sam. Though the fact that Cirra had no memory of who she really was did intrigue him.

When he heard water splashing, he looked down over the railing and saw Sam... No. Not Sam. Cirra splashing and trying to get up. He pulled on the ropes.

When she climbed over the railing and took of her mask, Jason noted the similarity of her face. Everything was basically the same except the shape of the eyes and lips. "Find anything?"

"No, but I'm starving. You think we could post pone another dive until I get some food in my system?"

Jason looked up at the sky and realized the day flew by at the speed of light. "It's going to get dark soon. This boat has two bedrooms, we could sleep in the boat and start fresh tomorrow."

"Yeah, that would be great. But I'm still hungry. And when I'm hungry I become groggy and annoying and then I get slightly pissed off, and when I get pissed off I tend to ramble like I'm doing now and... Why are you looking at me like that? Did I say something wrong?"

God, she even talked like Sam, Jason noted. He watched amusingly as she stared at him questioningly. He thought maybe he should tell her about his suspicions, that maybe she was Sam, but he didn't want to scare her off or make her feel like he was making a move on her, which he wasn't. He decided to go to the topic of food and when the dinner was ready, he'd get her to open up about the past three years of her life.

He pointed to a door of one of the two bedrooms. "You could go there and change. I'll get something whipped up in the kitchen. Is there anything particular that you like?"

She rubbed her tummy and smiled. "Chinese, but I think that is out of the question."

"It is. I'll see what I could do," he said and walked away.