A Dolphin Wish

by Natalie Grant

  Mom gave them a warm smile. “Yes! You’re right. This is my husband, Jack, and our girls, Mia, Maddie, and Lulu.”

  “Fantastic!” The woman prodded her daughter forward, who looked just about Maddie and Mia’s age. “This is my daughter, Stella, and I’m Meredith.”

  Stella looked at Mom and then at the girls. “Will you sign my . . .” She looked up at her mom, and all at once seemed to realize she had nothing for Mom to sign.

  “Actually, I have our concert tickets in my purse,” Meredith said. “They’ll let us keep them if you’ve signed them, won’t they?”

  “Here, I’ll sign the part that doesn’t tear off,” Mom said, signing with a flourish.

  “Thank you so much,” Meredith said.

  “Yes, thank you,” Stella echoed, and then to the girls, she said, “It must be fun to have a mom who’s a singer.”

  Mia thought of the travel, the special opportunities like seeing the dolphins, the way it felt to watch Mom sing. How could she explain all that? In the end, she just nodded and agreed. “It is fun.”

  For once, Lulu didn’t have anything to add. Maddie smiled her agreement.

  “Our favorite song is ‘When I Leave the Room,’ ” Meredith said. “We hope you’ll sing that one tomorrow night.”

  “That’s our favorite too,” Mom said.

  “Did you know that the show ends with fireworks tomorrow night?” Dad asked.

  “Fireworks?” Lulu said, not so speechless now. “We get to stay for the end of the concert, then, don’t we?”

  “We’ll talk about it,” Dad said, but he smiled the way that he always did when he definitely planned to say yes.

  “We’re off to see the sea otters,” Meredith said.

  “We were just there,” Lulu said. “Did you know that sea otters are like skunks?”

  “In some ways,” Miss Julia hastened to add.

  “Fascinating,” Meredith said. “Thanks again, and what should we say about the concert . . . Break a leg?”

  “Exactly,” Mom said. “Thank you.”

  Meredith and Stella headed toward the Northern Pacific, and the Glimmers went to have their passports stamped in the Arctic Sea.

  “Captain Polaris, at your service, ladies. Shall I stamp your passports?” the captain asked.

  “Please!” the three girls chimed.

  The pirate stamped their passports and waved them onward toward High Jinks on the High Seas. “Smooth sailing to you!”

  They lined up for High Jinks. Mia scanned the ground for scraps of paper, but saw nothing but a candy wrapper. She threw it away, trying not to get discouraged. A clue would show up; she was sure it would.

  High Jinks on the High Sea was a three-part ride. In the first part, they watched a short movie about the longtime pirate rivalry. The movie told a story of two ships that had been at battle for as long as anyone could remember. Next, the pirates took the group to a training room, where they split the visitors into groups. Along with most of the other visitors, Mia, Maddie, and Lulu practiced stage sword-fighting moves. Mom and Dad learned to operate giant water cannons. A select few, including Miss Julia, learned key phrases, such as “incoming, starboard,” or “batten down the hatches!” The pirates assigned these visitors to be lookouts.

  The visitors and a few pirates loaded onto the boat that waited on shore. Mia gripped her sword with white knuckles. Worry and excitement tangled inside her, making her arms break out in goose bumps. Would she know what to do when they got out to sea?

  As soon as the other boat sailed into the lagoon, she started to laugh. Everyone did. The other pirates were a disaster. They fell over one another, some even falling overboard. Then, they dragged themselves out of the water and back up the ropes. Watching them was like watching a comedy routine.

  From her perch on the high ledge, Miss Julia shouted, “Incoming, starboard!”

  At this, her hat flew off her head and sailed down to the ship’s deck. Mia started for the hat, but just then, a few of the pirates from the other ship swung across the gap between the boats. She raised her sword and fell into the staged battle. The pirates did more falling and somersaulting than anything else. They looked so clumsy, but they always seemed to be in control, which made Mia think they must be acrobats. After Mia, Maddie, Lulu, and the others had captured the ten pirates who had boarded their boat, they loaded them onto a rowboat.

  Everyone helped lower the boat to the water, and then they counted down. On one, Mom and Dad doused the rowboat with their water cannons. Everyone cheered. After giving one another a high five, Mom and Dad turned their cannons on the pirates across the way.

  “Retreat!” the pirates shouted, each voice rising above the next. “Retreat!”

  The defeated ship pulled away, and everyone cheered again as they sailed to shore. Even though Mia knew the battle had been pretend, she couldn’t help feeling proud. Mom and Dad had soaked the pirates, and she, Maddie, and Lulu had held their own in the sword fight.

  “Ready for a rest?” Mom asked. “It’s almost time for the water show. It starts in about half an hour. And then, time to go home for dinner and bed.”

  “Just one more ride?” Lulu asked. “I really, really want try Alligator Ambush. You get to blast the alligators with water guns!”

  “Who says?” Mom asked.

  “The pirates,” Mia explained. “When Lulu couldn’t choose between the water cannons and the sword fighting, they told her she could blast water at alligators on that ride.”

  “Sounds fun to me,” Mom said.

  “But not real alligators, right?” Maddie asked.

  “They’re too serious about conservation and safety around here to use real alligators for a ride, sweetheart,” Dad said.

  “Race you!” Lulu said, and she would have taken off if Miss Julia hadn’t caught her arm.

  “Remember, no running off, right?”

  Lulu sighed as they took off at a more reasonable pace. “Right.”

  Mia realized she’d become so focused on the battle, she hadn’t looked for clues since the ride began. Now the day was almost done, and she hadn’t solved the mystery—her mystery. She decided not to miss a thing on the way to Alligator Ambush.

  FIFTEEN

  You okay?” Maddie asked Mia.

  “Yeah.” Mia took the paper out of her pocket and studied the blurred writing. “Still no real clues.”

  “There was that man at the sea otters,” Maddie said. “But I’m not sure he was doing anything wrong.”

  “I guess they wouldn’t want park visitors to see any problems. I just thought maybe we’d see something they wouldn’t. I’ve been looking for scraps of paper they might think were garbage. Or something like that, I guess. We don’t have much to go on.”

  “Maybe Dad’s right, we should let this one go,” Maddie said.

  Easy for her to say. She’d already solved her mystery. Mia tried not to make a face. What she needed to do was pay attention on their walk over to Alligator Ambush. Snapping at Maddie wouldn’t make finding clues any easier.

  “Welcome to the Northern Atlantic Sea!” a man wearing a gold-tasseled coat called, pulling Mia out of her thoughts. His name badge read, Captain Doubloon.

  “We passed this way earlier, but were in such a hurry we didn’t get our passports stamped,” Miss Julia said.

  “Well, we’d better fix that!” Captain Doubloon said. “Hand them on over.”

  Soon, they had the final stamp on their passports. The day was so close to being over. A clue, any clue. Please, Maddie prayed. Just one clue.

  “And where are you off to, my friends?” Captain Doubloon asked.

  “Alligator Ambush,” Dad said. “We’re told that’s where sailors do battle with alligators.”
/>   “Right you are,” Captain Doubloon said. “And a valiant cause that is too. To starboard, my friends, to your right.”

  He saluted them, and they all saluted back. He followed this up with a bow, which they all repeated, as though they were playing an odd, silent game of Simon Says. When he put his thumb to his nose and waggled his fingers, they all burst out laughing rather than following his lead one more time.

  “Godspeed to you,” he said, and waved good-bye.

  “What does that mean, Godspeed?” Maddie asked.

  “It’s an old blessing that means, ‘God go with you,’ ” Miss Julia said.

  “He does anyway, doesn’t he?” Maddie asked. “Without anyone telling him to?”

  “Yes. I think the reminder is more for us than it is for him,” Dad said.

  As they walked, Mia found three pennies, one quarter stamped with a starfish, and an abandoned park passport. But no clues.

  Drooping vines hung over the entrance to Alligator Ambush. Sounds of birds and wind rushing through tall grasses greeted them as they walked inside. The boats were big enough to hold six, with three rows, and three water guns on either side of the boat. One water gun for each rider. The boat had a screen at the front to record how many times they hit alligators with the water.

  “Top score is fifty-three hits,” the guide said. “Good luck.”

  “Ready, girls?” Dad said as they floated through the swampy entrance and onto the river.

  Mia peered down the barrel of her water gun, wanting to be first to spray an alligator. To her right, a yawning set of teeth rose out of the water.

  “Fire!” she shouted, squeezing the handle.

  “Three hits. Four!” Dad called, as everyone on the right side of the boat fired away. The alligator slipped back under the river’s surface, as though they’d frightened him.

  “On your left!” Mom shouted, and everyone on the other side of the boat aimed at the new alligator who’d dared to lift his head.

  A knocking on the bottom of the boat almost stopped Mia’s heart, until she remembered. “They’re not real alligators!” she called to no one in particular.

  Left and right and then right again, the alligators kept on coming. “Forty!” Dad called. “We can do this!”

  But the end of the ride was approaching. Mia could see the landing area looming ahead. Two last alligators popped up, one on either side of the boat. Everyone shot away, giving those monstrous jaws all they had. When they arrived at the landing area, they’d made fifty-one hits.

  “Nice work!” the guide said, helping them up and out of the boat. “Want to give it another go?”

  “We’re headed for the five o’clock water show,” Mom said. “Or else we would.”

  Miss Julia took their picture underneath their score. Even though they hadn’t won, she captioned the picture: Victory!

  “That was fun, fun, fun!” Lulu said.

  Mia pulled her little sister into a giant hug. It had been fun, fun, fun. And now, they were off to the water show. Chances were, she wasn’t going to find any clues at the show. Which meant it probably was time to let the mystery go, no matter how much she hated that idea.

  “What’s the hug for?” Lulu asked.

  “Because,” Mia answered. “Glimmer girls, sparkle and shine, but most of all . . .”

  “Be kind!” her sisters chimed.

  Mia linked her arm through Maddie’s and then through Lulu’s. Enough trying to solve the unsolvable mystery for now. Dad was right. The park prankster, or criminal, or whoever he—or she—was wasn’t Mia’s responsibility. She’d tried to pay attention, but she’d come up with a big, fat zero. Nothing. Inside, her practical self battled this out with her hopeful self. Please, just one clue, she thought. Anything. And also, I need to let it go.

  “Are you okay?” Maddie asked.

  “It’s been a good day,” Mia said, not exactly answering the question.

  “Even if we only shot the alligators fifty-one times.” Dad sighed.

  Mom shook her head and gave him a sideways squeeze. “Let it go, Jack.”

  “We did give those pirates the what-for.” Dad wrapped his arm around her and squeezed her back.

  “Water show is this direction,” Miss Julia said.

  “Lead the way,” Dad said.

  SIXTEEN

  Mia and her family found seats near the High Jinks lagoon for the show. While the Glimmer family rode Alligator Ambush, the park staff had transformed the lagoon. A long, narrow dock now floated in the middle of the water, housing a scaffolding with lights and speakers. Overhead, two scaffolding arms bridged the distance from the dock to sturdy beams on the shore. A stage jutted forward from the dock, set to look like a rocky shore with various platforms at different heights.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, the show is about to begin,” an announcer’s voice boomed over the loudspeaker. “Please find your seats.”

  People shuffled to find seats. Soon, the music began with cymbals and brass, rising to a crescendo, and then two balls of flame burst out of the sea. A bass drum rolled, and spotlights focused on an actor who stood on the highest of the rocks.

  “I’m here to tell ye the tale of Captain Swashbuckler the Bold,” he boomed, his voice magnified over the music. “I must warn ye, it’s a dreaded tale full of fire and fury, but if ye stick with us to the end, ye won’t be disappointed.”

  At this, the music swelled again. One of the two pirate ships sailed under the scaffolding to the center of the lagoon.

  “Avast, Cap’n,” a sailor shouted from the crow’s nest. “The Jolly Roger, she approaches.”

  “We’re under chase!” another shouted.

  “It started like any other day at sea,” the storyteller said. “But as the ship flying the pirate flag approached, she seemed to be running on a phantom wind.”

  “We’re becalmed, Captain!” one of the sailors shouted.

  “What’s becalmed?” Lulu asked Miss Julia.

  “That’s when there’s no wind,” Miss Julia answered.

  “But the other ship has wind?” Lulu wanted to know. “Why?”

  “Watch,” Dad said.

  The other ship swept into the lagoon, and battle ensued. Mia saw every sword move she’d learned, and many more. Pirates swung onto Captain Swashbuckler’s ship in wave after wave until the sailors shouted, “Abandon ship. Abandon ship!”

  “Captain Swashbuckler wasn’t one to give up his ship without a fight. He stood his ground, alone on his ship’s deck,” the storyteller continued. “Finally, the pirates overpowered him.”

  “Walk the plank!” the pirates shouted.

  “’Twas a sight to see, watching this battle-hardened captain walk his own plank.”

  “I know not what magic you’ve used to becalm my ship and overcome my men,” Captain Swashbuckler shouted, his hands bound, and his feet standing at the end of the plank. “But hear this! You haven’t seen the last of me!”

  He stepped off the plank, and the pirates jeered. The two ships sailed away.

  “Everyone assumed Captain Swashbuckler had gone down to Davy Jones’s locker,” the storyteller said. “But they were dead wrong.”

  “What’s Davy Jones’s locker?” Lulu asked.

  “The bottom of the sea,” Dad whispered. “He means that everyone thought Captain Swashbuckler had drowned.”

  Before Lulu could ask anything else, four fins appeared in the water, moving fast.

  “Are those dolphins?” Mia asked.

  Two winged creatures swung out over the sea. It took a moment for Mia to realize they were actors, not giant seabirds. Nearly invisible ropes hooked them into the scaffolding beams.

  “They’re flying!”

  “Th
ey’re jumping!” Maddie pointed out.

  The fins weren’t attached to actual dolphins, either. Swimmers in costume worked together to leap out of the water in arcs, mimicking dolphin leaps almost exactly. After watching for a while, Mia saw that they were pushing off one another to catapult themselves into the air. Meanwhile, the birds spun and circled overhead. Their ropes were stretchy, allowing them to dive into the water and spring back up, dripping but safe. On one of the dives, a bird came up with Captain Swashbuckler in her arms. He was limp and bedraggled. The bird delivered him to the dolphins, who propped his head up and helped him swim to the rocky shore.

  “Early in his days, Captain Swashbuckler had saved a dolphin,” the storyteller said. “And in return, they had promised to keep him safe. So, they carried him to shore. The seabirds watched over him by day and the dolphins watched over him by night. Soon, he gained his strength back.”

  “By what magic did those pirates take my ship?” Captain Swashbuckler shouted, raising his fist. “By what power did they seize the winds?”

  “For weeks, no answer came,” the storyteller said. “But one day, the seabirds whispered in the captain’s ear.” At this, the birds swooped down on either side of the captain. The storyteller continued. “They told the captain tales of his ship, now flying the Jolly Roger and full of cruel-hearted men who terrorized the sea. Birds and fish alike had seen Captain Swashbuckler’s courage as he fought these men. Now, the creatures had devised a plan to help him take back his ship.”

  Again, the ship flying the Jolly Roger sailed toward the lagoon. This time, the pirates shouted with fear. “Avast! Where sail we? Turn, turn!”

  The water around the boat teemed with swimmers in silver and gray and black. Dressed as dolphins and whales and seals, they propelled the ship into the waters in front of Captain Swashbuckler’s island.

  “The pirates’ ill-gained magic betrayed them,” the storyteller said.

  At this, water rose on all sides of the ship, creating a curtain of water. The seabirds lifted Captain Swashbuckler off his rocky shore, and he rose high into the sky above the ship.