Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. I’m working on my Romance Suspense Mystery novel, A Case of Mistaken Identity, has a touch of the paranormal added to it for zing. Our word prompt this week is FAN.
We’d been cruising along for almost half an hourand hadn’t yet seen any of the marine mammals when Iain stopped our guide as she walked by. Expecting him to ask for another drink, my ears perked up when I heard the word Empress.
Roxanne shook her head. “Not really but on our way back, our course takes us near the National Historic Park. I’ll point it out to you when we’re close.”
“Is there any way that we can go out to the site of the wreck? We both lost family when the ship went down in 1914, and if possible, we would like to pay our respects.”
She frowned. “I see. Are you certified in wreck and technical diving and do you have your PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification? If you do, there are few companies in the Rimouski area licensed to take to out to dive the wreck, but it’s eyes only. You can’t take so much as a grain of sand from the wreckage or the area around it. Unless you’re experienced at deep water diving, I wouldn’t chance it. It’s an incredibly difficult and dangerous dive. You’re down between 130 and 140 feet. I’ve done it once a few years ago when I was working on my master’s degree, but I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of the experience. It’s cold, dark, silty, and super eerie down there. There was precious little marine life around the wreck. You couldn’t pay me enough to go down there again.”
I jumped into the conversation. “Did you see anything?”
Roxanne turned to me and nodded. “Part of the group was working for Parks Canada doing artifact recovery. They brought up some dishes, cutlery, and other memorabilia including a ceramic doll’s head. It was so sad. I almost expected the ghostly hand of a child to come out of the water and take it back down with her. Someone in the group swore something touched her, but…” She shrugged.
I shuddered. If that image wasn’t enough to spook the couple, nothing was.
“We don’t dive,” Iain explained. “We only thought that if we came this close…”
The girl smiled. “I’m not sure they’re still running, but there used to be a couple of companies in Rimouski that took people out to the marker. I’d better get back to the other passengers.” Roxanne left us.
Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.
Living the Dream 
Love all the information they are getting on the site. The detail is amazing! I hope they get out to see it. Great job!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s the plan, but later in the story.
LikeLike
That is eerie. You couldn’t pay me to do that dive. I’m wondering what the significance of the doll’s head is. And what could possibly have touched them? A ghost? Or a stingray or something less sinister? I love the way you pique my curiosity and pull me into this story. Well done!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not for the first time, Like isn’t the right word., and on land or recovered from a deep down wreck,I ‘ve loathed dolls all my life – much preferred bears or elephants. Right from the start, spooked by dolls and hope I managed to hide this when my visiting Canadian aunt ( Scarborough, Ontario) presented me with the bride doll.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My daughter has a similar reaction to Pierrot dolls, maybe because they remind her of clowns and she hates clowns to this day.
LikeLike
Love the descriptions. The doll face is pretty creepy. LOL- Sounds like a dangerous dive that deep and not much visibility. Jillian
LikeLike
Ohhhhh – that would be so exciting to be able to get that close to a site where family members had died years ago. But I know I’d stay on the surface for sure. No diving for this scaredy-cat girl. A great piece to weave into your story. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.
LikeLiked by 1 person