One afternoon, after lunch, and on a day when I stayed in the galley to help Greek get things in order so he could start making dinner preparations, I got my complimentary handful of butter cookies, I headed for the film lab to see what Logan was up to.

I handed him a couple of cookies and sat in the chair beside him as he munched casually and gazed back into the editor he was using.

"What's gotten into you, Dylan?" Logan asked, nibbling a cookie.

"Me, I'm fine," I said, sitting next to him at the editor's console.

"You've been a gloomy Gus for weeks. Suddenly you're full of piss and vinegar. You're even bringing me cookies. You get a raise or something?"

"No," I laughed. "I don't do anything. I sure don't get paid to do what I love doing. I'd pay them, except I don't have any money."

Logan laughed.

"Me, too," he said, "but don't tell Bill. With what he's paying me, I can live a year doing the things I love doing."

"You'll make money off your documentary film, won't you."

"It depends. If it plays in any major theaters, I'll make a little. Could win awards and get me noticed," he said. "That pays a lot."

"You haven't been noticed? Don't you have people behind you?"

"I do, but not like Francis Ford Coppola or George Lucas."

"Those guys are the best in the business, Logan. How can you compete with those guys?"

"One can dream, Dylan. I dream of making a movie everyone has to see. You've only got to have one of those and you're set for life."

"Like Godfather. That's a movie."

"Like Godfather or Star Wars. Spielberg wasn't anyone when he made Jaws. Did you know he was nearly fired off of Jaws?"

"No, he wasn't. That's a great movie. Scared hell out of me."

"He was over budget. He was six months behind on the shooting schedule. He had Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss sitting around the set doing nothing. The shark didn't work. In half the scenes it went belly up and they had to stop shooting to fix that damn shark one more time."

"I didn't know all that."

"The weather sucked and Spielberg being Spielberg began to improvise. He probably saw the handwriting on the wall. He began using that shark music without filming the shark. You knew when that shark was coming because the music told you it was lurking. So you have a lot more suspense not seeing the shark. The film turned out to be box office magic, and Spielberg became Spielberg because of it. All because the damn shark didn't work right."

"And no one went into the water for years after Jaws was released. I remember hearing that. Mama wouldn't let me see it until I was twelve, but it kept me on the edge of my seat. Mama doesn't go near the water anyway. I've never seen her go near the Gulf."

"You go in the water nearly every day. Jaws didn't scare you?"

"I'd been diving for years before I saw Jaws. I never put the two together. It was a great movie, but I've never been scared to dive."

"You're an amazing young man, Dylan."

"You were going to say kid."

"I was, but you're no kid. I don't think you've ever been a kid, have you."

"I suspect not. I have people around me who make my life what it is. They never treated me like I was a kid. You want to be famous like Spielberg, Logan? Have a gigantic blockbuster hit on your hands?"

"Not like Spielberg. Even I know that is a once in a lifetime movie. He was in the right place at the right time, and he made the best of a terrible situation, but you never know what's coming, Dylan. I keep doing what I'm doing because I love it. That's success enough for me. I wouldn't mind having a film everyone has to see one day."

"I'll be able to say, I know that guy. He taught me everything I know about film making," Dylan said.

"You're selling yourself short, my friend. I might be saying, 'I knew him way back when. He taught me things I wouldn't know if I hadn't been lucky enough to teach him about film making.' You're one of kind, Dylan. You're on your way to the stars. You need to accept it. Before I knew who you were, you made a movie with a camera you'd been using for fifteen minutes, and that movie is part of the first documentary we did together."

"Tangle," I said, knowing immediately which film I took that ended up in the first documentary we worked on together.

"Tangle," he said. "That's why I was sold on you. You filmed that in one take. You never put the camera down, and it told an entire story. I don't know anyone who could do that. You need to fuss with focus, lighting, distance, and get everything lined up for a shot, and you kept the camera rolling and didn't do any of that stuff."

"It was a whole story. It just happened that way, Logan," I said.

"You just made it happen that way. You've got an instinct that can't be taught. I don't have it. I can show you the mechanics and explain techniques, but no one can furnish you with the instincts you have. That's all Dylan Aleksa-Olson. You're going to be a well-known filmmaker one day, if you stick with it. You can take that to the bank," Logan said with confidence.

"I can?" I said, feeling pretty damn good about it. "You only used five minutes of my Tangle footage. That's not a movie."

"Five minutes of the Tangle footage appeared in a documentary film about Bill's summer research. I've been trying to figure a way to turn your footage into a half hour feature. Spielberg has me thinking about using music in place of seeing Tangle tangled in the net."

"I don't know what to say, Logan."

"Don't say anything. Keep shooting motion pictures. You speak through the things you film," Logan said.

Dylan would need to consider, and reconsider, this conversation. He had confidence concerning the things he did. The things he hadn't done was a different story, because he hadn't done them. Everything he had done, concerned his father's work. Most of what he knew came from working with his father, and a lot came from the books Aunt Lucy left lying around the Conservancy house.

Logan and I did hit it off right away. I didn't know why until he told me. He has an easy going style that keeps me listening to the things he tells me. It takes no effort to get along with him. He never treated me like a kid.

I still wasn't sure I wouldn't screw up in a way that had him souring on me. I suppose I didn't know what working with people I didn't know was all about. I'm always afraid of offending someone by doing something stupid. Up until now, I've only worked with my father, and if I do something stupid, he can't get rid of me. I'm his kid and you can't fire your kid, even when he does stupid stuff.

I have an opinion about everything. I know I should keep my mouth shut and listen, but I blurt stuff out when it pops into my head. Up until now I've mostly been around people I know. When I say something I should have kept to myself, they know it's only me. They know I shoot my mouth off and hardly react to it.

Working with my Dad, how could I offend him? He's not allowed to be offended by his kid. I get to be as stupid as I can be, and Dad just keeps explaining what he wants me to remember. That's what I like about Dad. He rarely gets too excited if I get things wrong. It's all part of what he does.

Dad doesn't get emotional about much. He keeps an even keel. If I fail to understand something, he sees that he didn't explain it properly so I did understand it. No fuss, no bother, "Let me clarify what I just said."

Now that I think about it, there is one thing dad gets emotional about, Ivan Aleksa. Mess with Ivan, and sooner or later, you'll be dealing with dad. Be Ivan Aleksa, and you need to deal with dad.

I'm fifteen and I don't have a complete understanding of it, but when you love someone, you become like a mother hen. Heaven help you if you threaten a mother hen's chicks. That's what love does.

I don't think dad gets that emotional about anything else. Well, come to think of it, maybe about me, but he doesn't take most things all that seriously. You don't get where you're going by taking a step, you get where you're going by taking a lot of steps, one at a time. If you don't get where you're going today, you'll get there tomorrow. The important thing is to get there.

I miss Dad. I like the freedom to do what I want this summer, but I've never been away from him this long before. I've hardly been away from him at all, but I don't want to start thinking about that again. I'll be home before school starts up, and we'll be going out on Sea Lab, and Daddy-O will be there, and we are going through the Panama Canal, which means we'll be starting that way soon.

I was talking about going to the film lab and giving Logan cookies. I never know what Logan might say, and sometimes he says things that allows me to see myself as he sees me. I like that.

"I was afraid you were losing interest in film making," Logan told me after eating the butter cookies I took him.

"I didn't realize I was acting different," I said. "I might have been a little home sick. Then, I realized how lucky I am to be here with you guys. It's an adventure of a lifetime for a kid. How many boys my age go diving in the Pacific every day?"

"All the boys who live on these islands. Only they don't use SCUBA gear. The spring is definitely back in your step," Logan said.

"Maybe going home in a few weeks has something to do with it, but I never once thought there were boys my age living on these islands. How could I not know families live on the islands out here?"

"You didn't give a thought to it, until I mentioned teenage boys diving out here. That was when you gave it some thought. Speaking of thinking, we might be going through the Panama Canal. What do you think of that?" Logan asked.

In school I didn't like everything I was taught. I didn't believe some of what was taught. I knew better than to question most teachers by now. Teachers were offended by students who didn't swallow everything they said, hook, line, and sinker.

I read a lot. I read things that disagree with what teachers taught. I questioned teachers about discrepancies at one time. A lot of the disagreements came from things I read in books Aunt Lucy left lying around the Conservancy house. Aunt Lucy was a teacher. She knew the truth. How is it all teachers didn't know the truth, or at least not teach things they knew were wrong?

I don't question what teachers are teaching any longer. Most teachers don't appreciate a student who questions their veracity. I thought some of the lessons I learned in school were strange.

With Dad, it was one question after another, but he answered them all, even the dumb ones. If he wasn't sure of the answer, he told me what he thought to be true but wasn't certain.

I liked the film I shot better than I liked Logan's centered shots. There was something less real about subjects always being dead center in every shot. That was my opinion, and it's why I put all my subjects a bit off center in my shots.

I know which footage is Logan's and which is mine. He has to be able to see what it is I'm doing too. He's never corrected me. He never said his style was best and if I knew what was good for me, I'd do it his way. Logan wouldn't say a thing like that. He was an artist and he respected my right to do it my way. I like Logan's style.

"I'd like to see the canal," I said.

Nothing I did this summer compared with the experience of last summer. Dad kept me centered and he had boundaries I wasn't to cross. If he'd been here this year, I wouldn't have been homesick. Having Dad with me was a little like it was at home. He gave me more freedom, because we weren't home and a kid needs to explore.

No one regretted the call to 'weigh anchor,' when it came. I was happier than anyone else. Not only were we going to experience the modern miracle of man's ingenuity, but I was on my way home.

I spent some time on the bridge every day. I liked talking to Captain Hertzog and Rolf. They always have a story to tell. The first time I went to the bridge, after we left the site of the ruins, I heard the captain whistling a happy tune.

He hadn't cracked a smile in weeks and he was whistling and smiling. "Nice day, isn't it, Dylan?"

"Yes, it is," I said and I smiled because he was smiling.

He was glad to be on the move. I suppose I was happy for a different reason.

That day in the film lab, Logan showed me some footage he would use in the 1984 documentary on the summer research trip.

"Yeah, I took this. It's nothing to write home about," I said.

"I want you to narrate the footage you shot. I'll use the footage for establishing shots. It's how we show the viewer where we are. I like this, but if we get something we like better, we'll use that."

"Sounds fine. Yes, this does allow the viewer to see the reef and then see the thing Bill's paying attention to," I said.

"I want you to do the introduction. I want you to start thinking about what you want to say. I like spontaneous. When you're speaking about something you believe in, you sound like it. The narration is as important to me as the music and the content. We have one chance to grab the audience's attention. Your voice is more convincing than mine."

"I don't know why my voice is better, Logan. I'm happy to narrate. I do what you want me to do, don't I."

"Like everything about you, Dylan, you do things your way, and in this case, your voice is better. We'll discuss what you say and the music we want once the documentary is where we want it. I'll fly to Florida with a copy, and we'll use Bill's studio to do the sound."

"Sounds exciting to me. Mostly I like what you like," I said. "I don't give it much thought. I just watch you and do what you show me how to do."

I got bored a lot in school. I had no difficulty passing classes. Mostly I got an A in classes. There was some fuss when I was in sixth grade. That's years ago. I'll be in tenth grade this year.

Most teachers don't have much to say to me. If I was failing, maybe I'd need to change what I do, but I've never failed anything.

The great thing about being in high school, I'll be out of school in a couple of more years. I've been in school all my life. I can't wait to get out. I want to be a professional photographer. I want to film my father's work. I'll go to school for whatever Logan says I need to know to be a good photographer.

I scooted my chair back after looking at the footage for Logan. It seemed fine. I might be able to get better shots, but these weren't bad. I needed to give it some thought before I said anything.

Logan scooted back into the editor and sped it up to pass over what we'd been looking at.

"Some people make a living lending their voice to projects far and wide. There are a few voice actors who make as much money as some of the really good actors," Logan said.

"I live in a great place. I have more food than I can eat. No matter where I go. I do something I love doing. Money isn't high on my list of things I want," I said.

"For most of us, it's what makes the world go around."

"I know money is essential, but it's not what I want my life to be about. I want to spend my life doing what I love doing. If I can't make enough doing that, maybe I should starve."

"I've never gone hungry and I've never not done what I wanted to do. Photography is a money making proposition. It doesn't need to be all consuming, but it needs to be a consideration," Logan said.

"That's OK," I said, not wanting to talk about money.

I was working for Bill and Logan for meals and a comfortable cabin on the Horizon. It was a laboratory where I learned plenty. No amount of money could accomplish that outcome. I didn't need anything. If I needed something, there was nowhere to buy it.

The world I lived in had plenty of money to go around. Most people seemed to have enough money to get by on. I didn't believe it was things I'd been given that made me comfortable in my own skin. It was the way I was treated that encouraged me to go for it, when I wanted to do something. Being with dad was an experience that allowed me to see him at work.

It was eye opening waiting for him to come back from a dive when I was eight and nine. I immediately went to the net bag to see what was in it. It was better than seeing what was in my stocking at Christmas. He'd sit in a deck chair and tell me what was in the net. Why I found it so intriguing, I can't say. I know I wanted to get down there, underwater with him.

When Daddy-O came home from where ever he'd been, for my birthday the following month, he gave me a camera. He showed me how to use it and that afternoon I handed him the roll of film I'd taken. Two days later, after I'd used two more rolls of film, I saw what I didn't even remember I put on film. I was hooked.

The idea of seeing something I found fascinating had my attention. It was the year dad bought me my own SCUBA gear and took me on dives with him. I suppose it was inevitable I'd merge my SCUBA gear with more complicated cameras that came on Christmas and my birthday.

Once, on the way back from Fort Myers, Daddy-O stopped at a garage sale. He found a handheld 16mm camera a man used in World War II. The man died. His daughter decided to sell some of the things he left behind.

I made my first movie in the weeks that followed. It wasn't very good. I filmed the things I filmed with still cameras. Action was added to the images. I liked the ability to film people in motion. This meant I could tell a story with people in action.

My first movie got laughs, which insulted me. I'd photographed the things I saw in and around the cove. Some people didn't like the position they were in when I filmed them. Maybe there were too many butts in my first movie. It was a theme I picked up on. I could see why some people might not appreciate my newfound talent.

While there were complaints, everyone agreed it was a movie. As I flirted with motion, I was on my way to meeting Logan Warren, a documentary filmmaker, who took me under his wing on last year's research trip I was on with Dad.