The module went out to the center of the pool.
This is it, Dawson thought.
The descent began and Agyeman yelled, “Brace!”
Dawson gripped the front of his seat with both hands and pushed himself hard against the seatback.
The splash came sooner than he had anticipated, and then the cabin was filling with water fast. Dawson hyperventilated a few times as instructed, and took a deep breath. As the water reached his neck, the module turned upside down.
It felt to him as if they were spinning multiple times. His arms reached out instinctively. He had to get out. Seat belt. He was feeling for the clasps on the belt and realized he had shut his eyes tight. He needed to open them. He released the buckle and freed himself. Was he facing up, or down? The window was still to his right, and he pushed against it. It opened, but at the instant he was preparing to swim out, he felt someone clawing at his back. He turned to look and saw the trainee who had been sitting to his left. He was on the wrong side, trying to exit through Dawson’s window, and he was in a state of panic. His eyes were wide open and afraid, his arms and legs flailing wildly and provoking turbulence.
Dawson’s impulse was to push the man back and make his escape. Instead, he grabbed the frantic trainee by the waist and forcefully propelled him to the window, giving him a final shove to eject him. One of the divers appeared, grasped him, and took him swiftly to the surface. Dawson followed in their track.
Life vest. He tugged at the red hook and it inflated.
He clawed at the water as he rose, his chest about to explode, and then he burst the surface and felt his head free and clear in air. He drew in his breath in a gasp and looked around. He had made it, and now he felt surprisingly calm. Two of the other trainees were floating around freely in the water, but the fourth, the one who Dawson had collided with, was spluttering and coughing as someone helped him out of the pool.
HOURS LATER, DAWSON was lying in bed with Christine. The HUET center wasn’t far out from Accra, so he had decided to spend the night. The boys had gone to sleep, and she was dozing with her head in the crook of his arm.
He was thankful the HUET was all over. His certificate was safely next to him on the bedside table. He was surprised that this was one of the proudest moments he could remember in quite some time. His getting through something he had been afraid of almost to the point of paralysis was an achievement. In addition, the diver who had witnessed him push the other trainee out through the window toward safety had given him a special commendation for his actions.
