Sunken Treasure

SUNKEN TREASURES I was working a booth at the Javits Center Gift Show. My job was to take orders for jewelry and be affable.

I was not very good at it. Couldn't keep the gemstones apart and felt very awkward making boutiqey talk with people. I latched on to a single line that I could say with ease: "Have you seen our toe-rings? Toe-rings are very hot this season."

Then I had to bite my tongue so as not to keep going and say, "I don't know why. I guess people like toe-rings. I for one couldn't stand having anything on my toes. Then again, I have these really long toes like a monkey…"

You have to be in sharp control of your phrasing in these situations. Say your thing and shut up. One day when business was slow, a highway patrol ranger came in to visit my boss—a good friend of his. He was stocky and very muscular, and had that broad-rimmed ranger hat, tilted forward and held in place with an elastic band. He told me he also rides motorcycles, speed-skates and dives professionally.

"Remember TWA Flight 800?" he asked. "I was a diver on that job."

I adjusted the flowers and polished the rings as he spoke.

"I brought up a torso, with no head."

"What do you think it was?" I asked. "A missile?"

"Nah. It was what they said. Not a single piece of wreckage was dented inwards. It blew up."

"Okay."

"Did they die fast?" I asked. "I think about that all the time, still. How fast they died."

He snapped his fingers. "Instantly."

"Really?"

"Let me tell you something. That thing was going like 400 miles an hour, and then it stopped. You know what happens? Ever seen a car accident? It's just like that. The jolt is so powerful that the face is dislodged. Boom. Just like that."

He went on to describe what he saw when he lifted the bodies and body parts out of the water.

"People's faces were down here," he said, holding one hand about half a foot under his chin.

"Aha," I said, trying to sound scientific. "I never thought about that aspect of it. It didn't just blow up, it stopped flying, very suddenly."

"They only had time to say, 'Oh,' and they were dead."

"Good. I'm glad to hear that. For years I was obsessed with the thought that they stayed alive until they hit the water."

"No way. I saw the bodies, I can tell you."

A woman stopped by the booth and looked at a board.

"Those are lab-simulated opals," I said cheerily. "They're very popular."

The tiny earrings sparkled under the lights like stars.