Half the Day Is Night Read Free Page A

the light and it came on. He tapped twice and nothing happened. Tapped twice with more emphasis and the lamp went off. “They turn on easier than they turn off.”
    David pulled on the mask, it was cold against his chin and smelled of metal. He tapped blindly since the lamp was on the forehead of the mask and it came on. It took him a couple of tries to get it off. Why would anyone ever want to turn one off?
    â€œLook,” Tim said, looking at the floor, “I ah, I noticed your limp. Your, ah, leg. Will it bother you swimming?”
    â€œNo,” David said. “It’s fine.” He looked at Tim so that Tim could not look at his knee and Tim hauled the recycs out of the pool instead.
    â€œYeah. Ah, well then,” Tim said. “As soon as we’re suited up, that’s it. The thing to remember when you’re diving is to breathe normally. There’s a telltale on your facemask that measures the amount of carbon dioxide in your blood. Just try to keep it within normal range and if you find you’re having a problem, let me know.”
    They hauled on the recyc units, heavy with water, and David fell backward into the entry pool, copying Tim.
    The water was very cold. It was a shock. The tights and suit had been uncomfortably warm but they weren’t now. The pool was really a tunnel, a u-shape that dove under the ground and back up into the sea. It was about two meters across and that didn’t seem like much. Tim hit an orange circle between two lights and the opening above them constricted shut. The air from the recyc had the faintest taste of the inflow valve, a rubbery taste, but it was warm. He tried drawing deep breaths to keep himself warm. The warm air in his lungs would warm his blood and that would warm all of him, but he might hyperventilate.
    â€œWhen you come out,” Tim’s voice came clearly, “don’t look straight into the lights, okay?”
    â€œOkay.” The telltale displayed amber numbers, they seemed to hang in the water in front of him about level with his left eyebrow.
    They began to swim down, angling their bodies. Tim kicked lazily, David felt the water resisting his kicks. Cold, viscous saltwater. (He knew cold water did not resist any more than warm water did.) He was not sure if he was breathing properly, he seemed to be taking unnecessarily deep breaths. The telltale flickered, “26, 27, 26, 27, 28, 29, 28.…” What was normal and correct? Ahead was the black eye of the ocean, or was it black because the ocean had no eyes? His indicator told him his respiration was still increasing. They followed the tunnel up, no more than six meters all told, and rose out of the garden, outside the dome. They came up past the window, looking in the living room, and the benevolent sun on the wall watched them sadly.
    They rose over the second floor, all dark, and their headlamps reflected off the dome. Their masks were blanks of copper in the reflection, like new smooth coins. Down the other side towards the lighted ring of garden. It would be better in the garden, in the light he would not feel so adrift.
    There was no feeling of weight, they moved through space unencumbered, down past the curtained main floor to the rock garden below, where frightened fish fled silver around the dome.
    Into the dark beyond. David slowed up, Tim kicked easily, moving like a shark. David followed. Light was swallowed up by ocean. He had to swim hard to catch up. He had trouble knowing which way was up and which was down. His legs were shorter, he kicked more often than Tim, and because of his bad knee he kept veering to the left. He wasn’t in very good shape, but at least he wasn’t worried about hyperventilating anymore.
    He wished Bennet would slow down, but he wasn’t about to ask for any favors. Where the hell were they going? If he lost Bennet he wouldn’t have any idea where he was, although he figured he could always double back. He