My daughter’s drawing was inside my diving helmet

Dear Delyara, I work as an underwater welder in the North Sea. Before every dive, I check the helmet myself because one missed seal can become the last mistake a person makes. Today, folded beside the communication cable, I found a drawing from my six-year-old daughter. She had drawn me under blue water with orange fish, although there are no orange fish where I work and almost no light at the depth we descend. Above the water she drew herself and wrote, “Daddy, come back up.” My wife must have hidden it there before I left home. I put the helmet on with the paper still inside. For four hours, I repaired a pipe while the sea pressed against every part of me and my daughter’s crayon message touched the back of my neck whenever I moved. Through the radio, the supervisor kept asking for pressure readings. I answered clearly. I did not tell him I was crying because tears are meaningless inside a helmet full of air and salt. When I returned to the surface, the drawing was damp at the edges. I have placed it in my logbook beside the emergency procedures. Both pages are instructions for surviving the same job.