The Poseidon Adventure (19 page)

Linda Rogo whispered, 'My God, what the hell's the old bag yacking about now?'

Belle Rosen heard. She always did. She turned her melancholy gaze on the girl. 'About what you wouldn't know. Because you never heard of Eleanor Holm, either, or girls like Helen Meany, Aileen Riggin, Ethelda Bleibtrey or Gertrude Ederle. They were all W.S.A. champions. I could hold my breath under water for two minutes, and once for two minutes and thirty-seven seconds. You know what that was then? A world's record is what it was. Eppie -- Charlotte Epstein, head of the Women's Swimming Association in New York, was the greatest thing that ever happened to swimming in our country. L. deB. Handley was our coach. He's the one taught Gertrude Ederle to be the first to swim the English Channel. Trudy once said maybe I could have swum the English Channel under water, if I'd wanted to.'

She was running on garrulously. No one thought or cared to try to stop her, and her sudden reminiscences of people of whom they had never heard. Besides, in some unbelievable way it was penetrating that she was holding out some kind of hope to them in their predicament.

'I used to be terrible,' Belle Rosen continued, 'scaring people. I could stay under so long, nobody knew when I was coming up and once I gave even Eppie nearly heart failure when I swam two-and-a-half lengths of the pool in practice when I was feeling good.'

'Look here,' said Martin suddenly, 'were you Belle Zimmerman?'

Manny Rosen spoke up proudly, 'Was she Belle Zimmerman! She's been telling you, ain't she? You should see all the cups and medals she's got, and a whole book of clippings. And once when she broke the world record, she was on the front page of
The Daily News
. If you don't believe it, we got the book home to show you.'

Belle said, 'Oh come now, Manny, he's too young to know. That was a long time ago.'

Martin said, 'I'm older than you think. Do you know how I remember? It's one of those funny things that stick with you. When I was a kid, around six or seven years old, my old man took me to a swimming meet at the old Illinois Athletic Club in Chicago. There was a girl there, and the name Belle Zimmerman comes back to me, who swam under water and I got so scared that she was drowned and wasn't going to come up, I hollered and carried on so that everyone turned around and looked at me.'

'That was me,' said Belle complacently. 'We won the National championship. I broke the American record. After I quit I got married, I put on a lot of weight.'

Rogo confirmed, 'Sure that's right, Belle. I remember seeing some of your pictures up in the store now. You were a good-looking kid.'

Linda Rogo suddenly shouted, 'So what? So what? Yack, yack, yack!' and then her voice rising almost to hysteria, 'I want to get out of here!'

Belle said quietly, 'You shouldn't get so excited, Mrs Rogo. What have I been telling you for? Gimme one of those lamps and I'll go down and see what's there. None of you can hold your breath as long as I can. If it's open, we'll know. If it ain't . . .' She shrugged.

Her offer galvanized the men. Shelby said, 'We can't let you do it, Mrs Rosen. It's too dangerous. We don't know what's underneath. We ought to find out first how deep it is.'

Muller put in, 'Yes, one of us should have a go first.'

Martin added, 'I suppose if it comes to that . . .' He did not finish the sentence lest anyone should think he was volunteering, but then ashamed, continued lamely, 'I'm not much of a swimmer.'

Surprisingly it was Manny Rosen who spoke up firmly, 'Look fellas, if my wife says she can do it, she can do it.'

Belle added simply, 'It don't take much when you're used to it. Only a good pair of lungs, which I still got.'

Her offer was so degrading to them that instinctively they turned to their leader hoping that somehow he would rescue them from the imminence of their humiliation.

The Reverend Dr Scott turned his powerful gaze from on high upon the diminutive, roly-poly figure and finally spoke. 'Okay. We'll let Mrs Rosen try.'

The members of the party looked at him in astonishment and with some indignation. The men had been hoping that he himself would insist after all upon the trial, over their objections.

He continued in his deep, compelling voice, 'You've all heard what she said, Mrs Rosen has been a champion. Champions are different from other people, another breed.'

Belle Rosen beamed with pride and suddenly seemed to grow inches taller.

'Yes,' Scott went on, 'from the very beginning you've been considering her a hindrance and a drag on us, and what's more, in one way or another some of you have managed to let her know. She's offered to help us in good faith. Why shouldn't she be allowed her moment of dignity?'

Again Jane Shelby was racked by ambivalence, an internal cry:
How can you who made me abandon my boy, make me love you so for what you are doing for this woman?

Scott said, 'If you'll try, Mrs Rosen, we'll take every precaution we can.'

'Precautions I'll take myself,' said Belle, 'I'm not a fool.' And then ordered, 'Put out the lights.'

In the total darkness that once more enveloped them, Muller murmured half to himself, 'Buzz Scott wins again.'

Nonnie asked, 'What?'

'Never mind,' said Muller.

They heard Belle's breathing for a moment and the sound of rustling and then she said, 'Okay, you can put them on again.' It had been the actual moment of disrobing she had not wished them to see. Thereafter she did not really seem to care, except that she remarked, 'So without my clothes my figure don't look so good any more, like it used to.'

She had removed her girdle as well and stood there in a pair of black underpants and bra, with her white skin ballooning from their confinement. She looked grotesque and at the same time suddenly incredibly gallant. Her movements had taken on a certain precision and vitality. She took off her eyeglasses and handed them to her husband. 'For heaven's sake, don't lose them,' she said. 'Where's the torch?' Scott handed her one. She snapped it on and proved that she was no fool by leaning over and plunging it beneath the water to make sure that it was waterproof and test the power of the illumination.

'Could you fasten it now to the back of my wrist?' and she held out her right arm. They still had a number of napkins, and Muller affixed the torch firmly.

'The rope you could tie around my waist, the knot at the back.'

Scott took one of the longest lengths of the nylon rope from Kemal and attached it as she asked.

'Listen,' said Belle, 'world records we're not breaking today. I can hold my breath now maybe still for two minutes. If I get through, okay, I give a yank on the rope. If after a minute and a half on your watch there ain't no yank, you pull. Wish yourselves luck.'

Hubie Muller said, 'You mean, wish you luck.'

'No,' said Belle, 'I don't need luck. You do, that I should get there inside of a minute. Because for two minutes, you wouldn't be able to hold your breath, none of you.'

They had not thought of that.

'Dr Scott and Mike, maybe you'll take the other end of the rope, like you're the strongest. Before a minute and a half, don't worry. Mr Muller, you could time me on that fancy watch you got.'

For a moment she sat down on the edge of the pit and let her fat legs dangle in the water. 'It ain't even cold,' she said and Hubie Muller had a momentary vision of her like one of those vulgar, seaside resort postcards of fat ladies posed as bathing beauties. The others watched fascinated as she prepared.

Belle Rosen began to breathe deeply from the bottom of her stomach: two, three, four, five times, more deeply each time, until with her lungs filled to absolute capacity she pushed off. They saw her underwater light and her body sinking like a great, white sea slug and thereafter she passed from sight.

'Ten seconds,' said Hubie Muller.

The rope paid out between the fingers of Scott and Rogo. It ran for a few yards and then stopped and Rogo said, 'Jesus!'

'Don't worry! Don't worry,' said Manny Rosen. 'I'm telling you, under water Mrs Rosen is like a fish. You think I would let her do it if I didn't know?'

Hubie said, 'Twenty seconds.' The rope began to move again. It paid out and continued smoothly. Then it stopped and went first slack, then tautened.

'Oh, God!' said Hubie Muller. 'Forty-five seconds.'

'Take it easy,' said Manny.

The rope slid forward once more. 'See?' said Rosen.

Hubie Muller's wrist was shaking so he could hardly concentrate on the second hand of his watch, 'One minute!' he said.

Martin put in, 'She said if it was more than a minute, none of us could make it.'

Shelby panicked. 'For God's sake, pull her back before she drowns.'

With unbelievable calm and confidence, Manny Rosen said, 'In my advice, you should do like she said. Otherwise if something goes wrong, you've got the blame.'

Scott ordered, 'Check your time, Hubie.' He was watching the rope.

'A minute and twenty seconds,' Hubie called, his voice unsteady. He felt that above everything else in the world, he did not wish this brave, fat woman to die down there, alone in that stinking blackness because he himself had been a coward. 'I'll count down now.' He picked up the seconds, 'Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one -- Pull!'

Rogo and Scott heaved back on the rope and nearly fell in a heap, for there was no tension on it.

'Pull! Pull!' shrieked Hubie and Martin and took hold as well. 'Oh, my God, if it's cut and she's down there and lost her way!'

They hauled in yards of slack and suddenly felt tension on the end like hooking into a big fish. There was a glow from the back of the pit and a white body rose and burst the surface with a tremendous whoosh of air rushing from tortured lungs and new breaths being caught at a rapid rate of respiration. The men reached down and hauled her out and sat her on the edge again.

Jane Shelby, Susan and Nonnie knelt at her side, looking anxiously into her face, 'How do you feel, Mrs Rosen?'

She said, 'Don't get so excited, everyone. I'm okay. It's for only thirty-five seconds you got to hold your breath and you come up on the other side. If there was a door there once, there ain't now. There's one place you got to look out, where something sticks out but it ain't bad.'

Hubie Muller said, 'But if it's only thirty-five seconds, why did you stay for so long and nearly give us heart failure?'

Belle replied, 'Ain't I terrible, always scaring people? But I wasn't meaning to. As long as I was there, I wanted to have a look at the other side.'

Scott asked, 'What could you see?'

'Not much,' said Belle, 'there wasn't enough light. There's a sort of platform like here, only bigger and flat. Anyway, I got a fresh lungful of air before I came back. So now let's try it out here first and you'll see. Everybody should hold their breath for forty-five seconds to be on the safe side. A minute is hard if you ain't used to it, but less you should be able, and then we ain't got any worries.'

Scott said, 'You tell us what to do, Belle.'

Belle replied, 'I'll fasten the rope on the other side and you can pull yourselves through on it. All you have to do is hang on. I wasn't even swimming fast. You hold your breath, close your eyes and in half a minute you're there.'

Manny Rosen said, 'You believe now that Mrs Rosen's got cups and medals?'

Martin said, 'By God, I do! Of all people, Belle Zimmerman!'

Richard Shelby added, 'You're magnificent, Mrs Rosen!'

Belle replied, 'Baloney! What you can do, you can do, and what you can't, you can't.'

Muller asked, 'What about our clothes?'

Belle said, 'You take 'em off, like I did. Who wears clothes when they go swimming?'

Miss Kinsale asked, 'What about on the other side?'

Belle said, 'That's up to you. You can carry 'em along, or leave 'em behind. I wouldn't think you'd need 'em. It seemed like it was hotter through there. I would leave it to Dr Scott.' And thus she handed the leadership back to him again.

The Minister said, 'I think we ought to keep our shoes. With climbing to do we'll need to protect our feet. But for the rest, I think Mrs Rosen's right. The less we're weighted down and burdened with, the better. Wet suits and dresses aren't going to help anyone. Rogo, Muller, Shelby, Kemal, Martin and I will strap on the big lanterns. We can fasten all the shoes to them. Each one ties on his or her own torch and we do exactly as Belle tells us to.'

Belle asked, 'You ain't worried?'

Scott laughed, 'With you I'd swim under the Arctic ice pack.'

Manny Rosen said, 'That's a nice compliment, Mamma.'

Miss Kinsale asked, 'Do you want us to take everything off?'

Belle replied, 'You could keep on your underwear, like me. So it's like a bikini. On the beach sometimes you wear a lot less.'

Nonnie said, 'But I've got nothing on under this.'

Belle smiled, 'With your figure you should have bigger worries, dearie. But that stuff could catch on something.'

Nonnie asked, 'Would you put the lights out again?' In the dark they could hear the ripping of cloth, then, 'Okay now, and the lantern light revealed that she had fashioned a creditable bikini set from the remnants of the dressing-gown. She looked even more childlike.