Dolphinium
©June 3rd, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
The last time the dolphins came for me, they didn’t fare well. I persuaded the rest not to beach themselves. They obeyed, but reluctantly.
I spoke their tongue. I couldn’t help it. Sometime after my fourteenth birthday, I found this out. When I walked the lonely two-mile stretch of beach where I spent my summer that year, I would sing loudly without fear of people laughing at me. I loved singing, but even I had to admit that I didn’t sound remotely human. Anyway, I saw them swimming closer and closer to the beach, so I got alarmed, and stopped. Later that summer, I tried again, and two of them beached themselves in their eagerness to hear me better. I managed to push them into the waves with the help of a passerby, who was much taller and stronger than I.
I tried to thank her, but she scolded me, saying, “What are you doing here all by yourself? You should know better than to walk on a beach alone, and you, a girl!”
That made me mad. I said, “Well, you’re a fine one to talk, aren’t you? Or is it just that you’re so tough and muscular that no one will mess with you?”
That didn’t go over well. She gave me a dirty look, and went her way, muttering dark things.
People didn’t really like me. I was told at school that I was “weird” and “strange,” but I didn’t think it was weird to close my eyes in maths class and make clicking sounds and long hoots. I felt lonely, sometimes, but mostly, I liked being alone.
In time, I learned to hide well. I passed for normal.
But my life was barren.
So, this time, when I was at the beach, I let myself go. And I saw them cresting the waves. I knew what would happen, and I was overcome with remorse.
No, no, I said, please go.
They kept coming towards me. We want to be with you they whistled.
What could I do? I jumped into the sea, and swam far from the shore, whistling and squeaking. They turned and followed me.
It was the last time I saw the shore. I barely gave a thought to my mom and dad. They wouldn’t miss me. In any case, they had my more normal brother, who played baseball and football, and had many friends, and they could keep him.
And as I swam farther out to sea, with a whole pod of dolphins behind and alongside me, I clicked and whistled, and the air filled my lungs, and the sea sang in my blood, and my heartbeat felt warm and sweet.
I was home at last.
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