Midas Bars

The jeweled water calmly danced under our inflatable raft as we sat, looking down into the wide mouth of the underwater cavern. It was me, my friend Amy, my boyfriend James, and her boyfriend Olly.

It was quiet as we all thought to ourselves. The hot, humid air quickly dipping in and out of our lungs as suspicion slithered in there as well. We knew what we saw down there. Our bodies still dripping from the swim. Spring-loading with our own intentions on what to do. Who would take the gold.

The birds and a few monkeys could be heard on the bank and tall rocks encircled us on the other side. We’d come for a place to go cliff jumping in the late morning when we found this stunning, sunlit cove that opened up into different tunnels and caverns underwater.

It was James who found the gold first. My boyfriend. That is, if he would want to share it.

Of course I want to split it all evenly among us, but what if they didn’t want to? What if they were going to just dive down there and take it by force? We were all friends… but were we?

“How much do you think is down there?” Olly asked, breaking the heavy silence.

“More than any one person needs,” James commented. Good. He was planning on splitting it too, or at least he was okay with it.

“Hmm.” Amy just hummed. All our eyes were still tethered to the sandy bottom of the cove.

I tore mine away. “Amy.”

“Hmm?” she hummed in askance this time, still not looking at me.

“I think we all know what we should do.” I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand, brushing my bangs to the side.

“What are you suggesting, Abi?” Olly had a teetering glint in his eye as he narrowed in on me. His whole demeanor was now irritating me like a fork screeching across a plate. I felt James’s hand on my lower back like he was getting ready. Now I knew how the teams were divided.

“I’m saying that once we get it all up on the bank, we’re going to split it four ways.” I stood my ground.

“Why would we split it four ways?” Amy demanded. “Olly was the one who found it.”

I almost had to bring my hand to my mouth to keep it shut. She was only saying it was Olly who found it because she and I had been swimming around in a different corner of the cavern, and there was no way she could claim it all for herself. But I couldn’t say that.

“I beg to differ.” James leaned forward. His chest against the back of my shoulder. He was always one to correct the incorrect. The tension was humming. Not a drop of wind blew through the trees. It was like everything was stuck in a hot, tropical Jello.

“This is ours!” Olly put his hand on Amy’s knee as he also leaned forward. The guys were nearly nose to nose in the small raft.

“We are dividing this like the friends we are!” James shouted.

“Friends,” Olly scoffed. “Then why did you book your two’s room facing the ocean and ours facing the parking lot!”

“You said you didn’t care!” James shot back. They went back and forth, getting louder by the second, screaming at each other why they were the one who needed it more. Amy was shifting her legs under her and starting to lean over the rubbery edge. She suddenly leapt off the raft and I lunged forward, catching her ankle, only to be yanked over the side with her, like a fish on a hook.

Amy was swimming down to it! I held on with an iron grip as she swam deeper, dragging me with her. She was flailing too much for me to adjust my hold, and she was definitely strong enough to lift the small, battered trunk the gold bars were peacefully resting in. But I was rapidly running out of breath.

I let go to head to the surface, planning to come down and intercept her, when something slammed into my head from above, like a rock. Stunned, I could only float where I was. I really needed air! I began to slowly drift down, my head lolling upward. James was wrestling with Olly right over me. I needed help, but my slow-moving arms were not going to be fast enough to pull me.

In an instant Amy was there. She was blurry, but I could see the trunk lodged under her arm like a huge football. I reached out for her, but she kicked my hand away as she kept going up. What was going on? What was this craze that came over us? Why did I care? Let her take it. Let her take it all…

A strong arm clamped around my middle. Vibrant stars and streaks were exploding in my vision as my body was twitching and jerking. Water filled my nose. It felt like hours passed by before I was launched out of the water and into the blinding sun, but I still couldn’t take in any air.

I was roughly slapped onto the sand and James’s hands heaved on my chest. It only took one to puke the water out of me as I rolled to the side to cough it out.

“Abi! Are you okay?” He quickly dragged my ragdoll body into his arms and held me tightly. “I almost wasn't fast enough.”

“I’m okay,” I wheezed. There was some sort of sweet relief just sitting there gathered next to him in the warm sun, on the warm sand, next to his warm body. I knew he felt it too.

“I’m guessing Olly and Amy just left?” I pulled my head away only far enough to look into his eyes.

He nodded, pressing his lips together. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, I don’t give a damn about it.”

“Me neither. It was like we were under its curse.”

“Ha, gold fever.” He said it like a joke, but I didn’t think it was quite as light as that. We had all just been so serious about it.

“Should we hurry back to the hotel?” I asked.

“Oh I bet they’re long gone by now.”

“You’re right. May as well take our time.” I peeled myself away and sat back on the beach. We had only just got there when we found the gold, so we still had our full lunch cooler and everything. Olly and Amy didn’t take anything but their shoes and backpacks. James and I enjoyed the rest of the day in the cove, eating, drinking, and swimming occasionally to see if there was anything else down there.

About six hours later we were sun baked, delightfully tipsy, and exhausted. I was ready to shower and go to bed in our air conditioned room. We packed up the raft along with what was left of the food and drove our rented Jeep back to the hotel. Thank goodness we’d brought two vehicles. I imagined Olly and Amy wouldn’t have thought twice about leaving us.

Once we returned the raft to the rental shack and found our parking spot, we walked hand in hand in the direction of our hotel, however right when we got out of the parking garage, all we could see were foreign police cars huddled around the front entrance. Their lights were on and a crowd of people were swarming. I had a sinking feeling it was our friends. Looking to James, it seemed he had the same idea. We continued into the fray that seemed to be winding down. We’d missed the action by only a few minutes, but people were still being questioned off to the side.

I fell asleep wondering what’d happened to them. Amy and I had been friends for a few years, but the look in her eyes when we were on the raft was someone else. I wouldn’t touch that gold if my life depended on it. James and I were glad we didn’t find anything else down there.

The next morning we were down getting breakfast and coffee, settling in on the hotel patio when I noticed James staring at the small tv off to the side.

“What are you watching?”

He kept his eyes locked as he just pointed. I swiveled in my chair to see the last second of Olly’s mug shot before footage showed both him and Amy being put into police cars outside the hotel. The English captions stated that they’d been caught trying to smuggle local artifacts and were going to be held in custody to await a trial.

“That’s not good,” I breathed.

“No.” James sipped his coffee and gazed out at the ocean. “How can we help them?”

“I have no idea. They must’ve been trying to sell them off to someone and it went wrong, since it said they were ‘artifacts.’”

“We’ll probably have to hire someone back in the states to take care of it.” His face was grim.

I nodded. “I would rather that than get tangled in their mess.”

Three weeks later we were back home. We’d tried different lawyers and private detectives, but few were willing to leave the country. One detective was willing and promptly went to investigate, only to find out that there was no trace of two Americans named Olly and Amy. He’d said there was the one news story for a broadcasting station that James and I had seen, but that was all.

It was chilling, remembering the frantic feeling on that small raft of potentially turning against everyone for that gold. I felt something, or someone, had been looking out for James and I that day. We frequently remember our friends with not only sadness but also caution. Caution for things that may not always be as good as they seem.