Dolphin Tale 2

by Gabrielle Reyes

  “Hey, son,” his mother called from his bedroom door. “Ready for tomorrow?”

  Sawyer sighed. So much for not thinking about it, he thought. He shrugged.

  Lorraine studied her son. Maybe I should just leave him alone, but I have to think of his future. “You know …” she said, stepping into the room. “It’s almost the end of the month —”

  Sawyer wouldn’t let her finish. “Mom, I know. Dr. Aslan needs an answer.”

  “Well, he does. And the longer we —”

  “But I don’t know!” Sawyer blurted out. “How can I tell him if I don’t know what’s going to happen with Winter?”

  “Honey …” Lorraine said, sitting on Sawyer’s bed. “They’re not going to hold your spot forever. Sometimes in life, you just have to make a decision.”

  Sawyer’s face was hard. If only it were so easy. “Don’t, Mom, okay? I get it.”

  Lorraine swallowed. “Well. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.” She stood up and headed toward the door. Before she walked out, she turned back to look at Sawyer one more time. It was tough seeing him so troubled. “I love you, Sawyer,” she said with a gentle tone. “More than anything. You know that.”

  Sawyer let out a long exhale. He knew his mom was just trying to help. “I know, Mom. I love you, too.”

  When he was alone again, Sawyer looked around his room. Maybe I should just go to sleep, he thought. He had to be at the aquarium at dawn to get ready. Sawyer grabbed his alarm clock off his shelf, checked the time, and put it back.

  Tick, tick, tick, tick.

  Huh? Sawyer looked back at the shelf and noticed the box from Dr. McCarthy. He took it down and lifted the lid. Tick, tick, tick, tick. The watch was running.

  Sawyer woke up in darkness and was at CMA as the sun’s first rays touched the sky. He stood in the Great Hall of the aquarium along with every CMA staff member and volunteer. Winter was special to all of them; they all desperately wanted to see her get along with Hope. They all desperately wanted to see her stay in Clearwater.

  “Okay, everyone,” Phoebe said into a microphone, calling everyone to attention. “Now, remember, today has to feel like a normal day…. The dolphins will have their regular sessions. Kat will have Hope, and Sawyer will have Winter. You all know your assignments.” She surveyed the room. “Gate-minders?” She nodded as two staff members raised their hands. “Good. Where’s Kyle?” Kyle waved. “Kyle’s our safety. If anyone is in trouble, his word is law.” The group murmured their understanding. Phoebe handed Sawyer the microphone.

  Sawyer cleared his throat. “First of all, I want to thank everybody for your hard work and preparation for this moment.” He paused while the crowd applauded. “But remember, no matter how much we love Winter and Hope, they are wild animals. They can bite, or rake each other with their teeth, and even draw blood. They can head-butt or take a cheap shot when the other one’s not looking. That’s how they establish dominance in the wild. It’s natural, but it can be rough.” His eyes scanned the faces of rapt listeners. “Reed, Rebecca — you have the nets, right?” Reed gave him a thumbs-up and Rebecca nodded. “If they attack, you divers get in and get that net between them — fast. But if it goes right and they accept each other, you’ll see parallel swimming.” He held out his hands a few inches apart and moved them in an S-like motion. “It’ll be easy, natural, relaxed behavior. If anything looks aggressive, remember our goal is safety first — theirs and ours.”

  Sawyer took a moment to make sure everyone understood the seriousness of the experiment. “Any final questions?”

  Clay raised his hand. “I have one.”

  Huh? What could I know that Dr. Clay doesn’t? “Dr. Clay?” asked Sawyer with a puzzled expression.

  Dr. Clay just grinned and asked, “When did you get so bossy?”

  Sawyer looked sheepish. I’ve learned so much over the last few years, he thought. Maybe I am ready for some new adventures after all.

  * * *

  After his speech, Sawyer and the rest of the staff went to get in position. Kyle joined the medics. Clay and Phoebe checked on Winter in the East Pool and Hope in the Main Pool. Reed and Rebecca inspected the nets one last time. Sawyer was hurrying toward the pool carrying a cooler of fish for Winter when he tripped and smashed right into Hazel loading film in her camera.

  “Oh! Sorry —” Sawyer stammered.

  “No, my fault. I must have … I just, uh …” Hazel said, stuttering. She had just realized that, in the commotion, her hand had landed on Sawyer’s chest. She blushed and pulled her hand back. “Sorry — um … good luck today,” she said and rushed off.

  A few minutes later, a hush had fallen over the pool area. Everyone was at their station ready for Kat and Sawyer to begin. At the edge of the pool, Hazel grabbed a long pole attached to a special underwater camera, lowered it into the water, and started filming.

  Without any sudden movement or loud sounds, Kat and Sawyer approached the pools. In the Main Pool, Kat gave Hope a signal to stand upright in the water. When Hope followed the instructive cue and opened her mouth, Kat squirted some water in playfully. Then she hopped in to join her. Over in the East Pool, Sawyer slid into the water and started to pet Winter gently. “Hey, girl …” The dolphin nudged toward the boy’s hand and tweeted.

  “Everybody set?” Phoebe said in an authoritative but calm tone. Clay double-checked everyone’s position. They looked good.

  “All good, Phoebe,” he said.

  “Okay.” She looked to the gate-minders. “Open it.”

  Sawyer held his breath as the gate-minders pushed the barrier out of the way. He guided the dolphin toward the gate. Winter dipped down and glided forward. When she went through the gate into the Main Pool, she hesitated. Kat had released Hope.

  It didn’t take long for the dolphins to find each other underwater. Within moments, they were face-to-face, bumping rostrums. Winter made a biting motion and Phoebe started to move in when Clay stopped her. “Just wait.”

  The two animals continued checking each other out. Winter stayed still while Hope circled her. When Hope reached Winter’s peduncle — the big muscle between a dolphin’s dorsal fin and tail — Hope echolocated. But the echoes that bounced back to her didn’t make any sense. Where is this other dolphin’s tail? Hope didn’t understand and started to panic. She whirled around so fast that her tail flukes smacked right into Winter’s peduncle.

  Hope didn’t know what to do, so she just swam as fast as she possibly could around the perimeter of the pool. Winter followed her awkwardly, swishing her tail from side to side. She was so eager to get to know this young new dolphin. When Hope swung back around, passing her, Winter tried to bump her with her rostrum.

  “No, Winter!” Sawyer shouted.

  But Hope had already frantically spun around and snapped at Winter. The older dolphin tried to give Hope another friendly nudge but it only angered her. Hope smacked her tail again and again, then leaped and landed back in the water with a smash.

  “Get ’em apart,” Clay directed.

  The net team started forward, but Winter was already on the move.

  “Wait, wait!” Sawyer yelped, holding his arms out. Winter was bolting for the gate and he didn’t want to traumatize her further by having the net team capture her. She zoomed through the gate back into the East Pool and shot under the platform, where no one could see her.

  * * *

  Clay and his team were emotionally exhausted. They had been preparing for Hope and Winter’s meeting for weeks and the outcome was a crushing disappointment. All afternoon, Sawyer tried to get Winter to come out from under the platform, but she refused. She wouldn’t even come out to eat. At the end of the day, the staff ordered some takeout for dinner and piled around Clay’s computer in the Great Hall to figure out what to do next.

  “Okay, so this is the underwater footage from this morning….” Hazel explained, pressing a key on Clay’s keyboard.

  Phoebe studied the screen. “So, at first, Winter was f
ine. She held in the gate —”

  “— being territorial,” Clay added.

  “‘It’s my gate, not yours,’” Reed suggested.

  “Then Hope circles Winter….” Phoebe continued.

  “There. Freeze it. Look!” said Sawyer.

  Hazel tapped a key to rewind the video, then froze it.

  On-screen, Hope faced Winter’s peduncle. Phoebe leaned forward in her chair. “She’s echolocating.”

  Hazel pressed PLAY once again and the team watched as Hope reacted with agitation. “She realizes Winter has no tail,” said Hazel.

  “And she doesn’t like that,” Sawyer stated. “Watch….” On the video, Winter was now swimming with her tail’s side-to-side stroke, and Hope was getting more and more upset. “When Winter starts swimming —”

  “It freaked Hope out,” Kyle said, finishing Sawyer’s thought.

  Hazel hit PAUSE.

  “Well, it is unnatural, that motion….” Clay said, thinking aloud.

  Phoebe leaned onto the table and put her hand to her chin. “But there’s nothing we can do about that, that’s just how she swims….”

  Clay’s eyes met Sawyer’s.

  “Not always …” Sawyer said. Suddenly, everyone had the same idea. “Exactly … What if … what if Winter wore the tail?”

  Everyone started talking at once, each voicing a strong opinion.

  “Oh, no,” Phoebe said. “That’d freak out Hope even more….”

  “It might not….” Kyle countered.

  “She’s never seen anything like it in the wild. She’d go nuts,” Kat argued.

  “A huge contraption on her tail …” said Rebecca.

  “If she smacks Hope with it …” Phoebe said.

  “She is awful little….” Reed said quietly.

  “And Winter has been aggressive lately….” Kat reminded everyone.

  Clay held up his hand. “Hold it, everyone. Hold it.” The crew got quiet. “Everything you’re saying is true. The tail would give Winter a more natural swimming motion. But if Winter clocks Hope with it, it’s game over.” To everyone’s surprise, he turned to Sawyer. “What do you think? She’s been aggressive before. Think she’ll do it again?”

  Sawyer felt the eyes of the CMA senior staff boring into him. He tried to ignore them and took a moment to think. “No … that was my fault. I pushed her too fast. She wasn’t ready.” He looked around and saw doubt on several faces.

  “Look, I know Winter,” Sawyer said. “And she’s fine now, I can see it. I see it in her eyes and the way she moves. And the way she is with me. She’s like she always was. She never meant any harm and she never will.” He took a deep breath. “If we don’t give her this chance, what do we do? Give up? I don’t want to spend the rest of my life knowing we didn’t even try.”

  The staff was quiet. To Sawyer, the next minute felt like an eternity. Finally, Hazel voiced her opinion on the matter for the first time. “Sawyer’s right.” She looked at Clay, seeming more grown-up than ever. Clay nodded. He knew Hazel was taking all the important information into account.

  “Tomorrow, eight a.m. With the tail,” Clay declared. “If anyone objects, speak up now.”

  No one said a word.

  Tension was high the next morning. As Lorraine pulled into the CMA parking lot with Kyle and Sawyer, their car was surrounded by swarms of news crews. Reporters hurried over, firing questions through the windows of the car. Sawyer’s eyes expanded, taking in the crowds of people wearing T-shirts and buttons with a logo of a dolphin’s tail and reading “Hope for Winter.”

  “Guess word got out,” said Kyle.

  Lorraine pulled into a parking spot slowly, taking care not to hit anyone. When the three got out of the car, the reporters attacked.

  “Sawyer, we heard you’re trying to pair Winter and Hope!”

  “We heard it failed yesterday!”

  “Is it true they attacked each other?”

  “There’s an aquarium in Texas advertising Winter’s on her way there!”

  “Is it true? Are we going to lose Winter forever?”

  Sawyer felt his throat closing in.

  “You guys get inside,” Kyle said, stepping in between the reporters and his cousin. “I got this.”

  By eight a.m., the same team as the day before gathered by the dolphin pools — with one exception. Dr. McCarthy lifted his metal case and set it down on top of a nearby table. He opened the case and revealed a new prosthetic tail with black plastic flukes. “Just finished at four this morning. It’s a more streamlined design with carbon-fiber joints, and I made the flukes darker, so we can track the movement better. Plus — as you’ll notice,” the doctor said with a twinkle in his eye, “it’s more floppy.” He took a step back, clearly pleased with himself, while the others leaned in to take a closer look.

  Sawyer picked up the tail and ran his thumb against the flukes. “More like the real thing,” he said admiringly.

  “How’d you get the edges so soft?” Clay asked.

  Dr. McCarthy smirked. “Three jars of meat tenderizer and a Louisville Slugger. And that’s not all….” He opened a smaller case and took out a new gel sleeve.

  Hazel was amazed. Years ago, it had taken several tries before Winter would wear the prosthetic tail Dr. McCarthy had made. Winter had to wear a special gel-filled sleeve on her stump so that they could attach the prosthetic tail to her body without hurting her. Sawyer had been the one to realize it was the gel sleeve that Winter found most uncomfortable. Once Dr. McCarthy determined the right gel formula, Winter accepted wearing the plastic tail and started swimming with an up-and-down motion again, ceasing the damage to her spine.

  “Is that a new gel formula, too?” asked Hazel.

  Dr. McCarthy pretended to look offended. “Naw, kid! Same formula. I just made a fresh batch. Don’t get greedy.” Hazel laughed along with the rest of the team.

  Just then, Hope whistled from the Main Pool and Winter tweeted in response. Dr. McCarthy nodded his head in their direction. “They’re just a couple of chicks talking trash over the fence!”

  Within a few minutes, the crew members were in position, checking the nets, the gate, the camera equipment, and the animals. Sawyer and Phoebe took the new tail and sleeve over to Winter in the East Pool. She hopped up onto the platform and looked at the tail calmly. But as soon as Phoebe started to slide on the sleeve, Winter began to thrash.

  “Easy, Winter. Easy, girl,” Sawyer said in a soothing tone.

  Winter settled down but remained skittish.

  “You’ve gotta wear it now. It’s the most important time ever,” he whispered. “And see? It’s new. Dr. McCarthy made it special, just for today.” Winter looked over at the doctor. “See? There he is. He stayed up all night making this for you.”

  Dr. McCarthy peered over the platform. Winter padded over to him. She put her face right in front of the doctor’s and let out a long, loud raspberry sound. Dr. McCarthy jumped back, wiping off his face. “My sentiments exactly,” he muttered. Sawyer put his hand over his mouth to hide his smile.

  * * *

  By the time the team was just about ready to go, the rooftop deck was packed. Susie and the other CMA volunteers were crammed together, many wearing “H+W” shirts and buttons. While Sawyer was pleased to see Bethany Hamilton had come out to support Winter, he was nervous to see George Hatton, Phil Hordern, and the rest of the board of directors. Outside in the parking lot, groups of fans had joined the news crews waiting for updates and information from the roof.

  “All right,” said Phoebe from the East Pool platform. She stroked Winter’s back, glanced at Sawyer, then called over to Clay. “Tail’s on.”

  “’Atta girl,” Sawyer said.

  “Okay, good. Kat?” Clay said, looking over to the Main Pool. She gave him a thumbs-up.

  Clay turned to his father, standing with the divers.

  “Ready when you are,” said Reed.

  Clay cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s get her of
f the platform.”

  Sawyer and Phoebe slipped into the pool and gave Winter the signal to join them. Once she was in the water, Winter took a minute to get accustomed to the new tail. She took a lap around the pool. Swish up. Swish down. Swish up. Swish down. Feeling good, she swam back to her friends and tweeted.

  “Hear that?” Kat whispered to Hope in the Main Pool. “That’s Winter.”

  “All right, everyone,” Clay said. “If anybody’s not ready, speak now.”

  Sawyer braced himself, but the only sound he heard was water lapping the sides of the pools. He looked at Clay and swallowed. “Let’s do it.” At Clay’s nod of approval, Sawyer guided Winter gently toward the gate-minders, who were sliding open the gate. He let Winter go and watched her dive down and over to the Main Pool.

  The dolphin coasted to the middle and stopped underwater. Kat watched as Hope swam off to investigate. She met Winter in the center and the two dolphins stared at each other, rostrum-to-rostrum.

  “It’s a face-off,” said Kyle to Dr. McCarthy in a hushed tone.

  “Showdown at high noon,” the doctor murmured back.

  Clay glanced across the pool at Phil Hordern and George Hatton. They both shared the same tense expression.

  After a few seconds, Hope started to circle Winter. Once again, she stopped when she reached Winter’s back. Winter waved the tail slowly up and down, making the prosthetic glint in the water. Just as she had the day before, Hope sent out a call and studied the echoes that came back to her. Up on the deck, Hazel held her breath and tried to keep the camera steady. Everyone — from Dr. McCarthy, Kyle, and Lorraine to Phil, George, and Bethany Hamilton — kept their eyes glued on the two dolphins.

  Suddenly, Hope spun away from Winter’s tail and took off to the side of the pool.

  The crowd took a quick inhale and looked at Clay. This is bad. “Clay …” Phoebe said, anxious to get the team ready for an emergency intervention. Reed and the net team stepped forward.

  “Hang on.” Clay focused on Hope. In her agitation, the young dolphin had begun to swim swift laps around the pool. To everyone’s surprise, Winter launched into high gear and chased after Hope. When Winter caught up to her, Hope whipped around and stopped. What is going on? Hope thought. This other dolphin’s tail is definitely different, but she moves the same. Is it safe to be around her? Hope stared at this strange creature and examined her closely. Should I try to talk to her? Hope lifted her head and whistled. Winter voiced her Tweety Bird sound in reply. For a moment, the two dolphins were suspended in the water.