by D R Sherman
The boy got to his feet slowly. There was a puzzled expression on his face. “It is strange,” he murmured thoughtfully. “He has never done such a thing before.”
“What shall we do?” the girl cried anxiously. She watched the wallowing dolphin, and she began to doubt that she would ever get the chance to ride upon its back.
“He has never done such a thing before,” the boy said again, and there was a note of complaint and mystification in his voice. “I really do not understand it.”
“It is as I told you,” the girl said, disappointment making her resentful. “The marsouin is a girl, and she is angry with you because of her jealousy.”
The boy stared at her thoughtfully for a moment, deliberating over what she had said. There was neither truth nor reality in her words, but he knew that in some obscure way they held the answer to the riddle of the strange behavior of the big fish. He stared at the dolphin, studying it, struggling with the elusive idea. It seemed to him that the eyes of the fish were focused intently on the girl. He began to wonder whether it was only his imagination. He concentrated on its eyes, and he thought he saw a look of wariness and mistrust in them. The glimmer of understanding in his brain burst into sudden comprehension. He swung back to the girl, quickly pulling the mask down over his face.
“It is not a girl fish,” he said emphatically. “It is a boy fish, and he is not angry with me.” His eyes became accusing. “It is the first time I have come to meet him with another in the boat, and I do not think he understands it, and so he is wary.”
He moved into the bow of the pirogue, and he sat down on the gunwale and swung his legs over the side.
“Where are you going?” the girl asked immediately. “Since he will not come to me for now,” the boy replied, followed the direction of her pointing arm. A great bursting relief swept through him suddenly. The dolphin was fifty yards away, its body half out of the water. It was standing straight up on its tail, watching him. Once again he felt a great love for the big fish, especially this time, because its coming had been more important to him than his life.
“I must go to him and show him that there is no cause for his uneasiness.”
“But, Paul!” the girl protested. “When will I be able to ride on his back?”
“I do not know,” the boy said. “We will have to wait and see what happens.”
He turned himself, so that for one moment he was facing the boat with the weight of his body on his arms, and then he lowered himself quickly. He let go and sank into the water with hardly a splash. He came up and pushed off against the side of the pirogue, swimming out towards where the dolphin lay wallowing on the surface. He had covered half the distance when the big fish dived suddenly. He felt the familiar touch of its body between his legs, and then the gentle bump of its dorsal fin against his back.
He lay down flat along the dolphin as it dived. A tremendous sense of elation filled him, and at the back of his mind was the knowledge that the girl would be watching him.
For several minutes the boy rode on the back of the big fish. In the beginning he took it straight out to sea and over the reef into the deep water. After a while he began to think about the sharks, and he turned the dolphin and came back. He guided the fish straight towards the pirogue, and then when he was close enough to see the excitement in the girl’s eyes he turned the dolphin and rode off away from the boat. He did it again and then again, going in closer each time before turning the fish, letting her think that he was coming in to give her a turn. He was beginning to enjoy himself, especially the look of anticipation on her face which turned to sudden despair each time he turned away. He did it for the fourth time. Her face seemed to crumple and break, and he felt so terrible and mean that he turned the dolphin back straight away and brought it right up beside the boat. He slipped off its back and caught hold of the gunwale. He hung there, and when the big fish came up to him squeaking and blowing he reached out and tickled, it along the flank.
“See if he will allow you to touch him,” the boy called.
The girl reached out over the side of the boat. The dolphin darted away. It went out twenty feet, and then it stood up on its tail and looked at her for a moment before sinking slowly and swimming back to the side of the boy.
“Oh Paul,” she lamented. “He does not like me.”
He heard the humiliation in her voice, and the brokenhearted sound of it. He felt very ashamed, for tantalizing her the way he had. He wondered what there was to be done. He remembered the fish in the boat. He thought it might work, even though he did not really like the idea of her feeding his dolphin. He, forced himself to speak.
“Take one of the fishes in the boat,” he said. “Smack it down in the water so that he can know it is a fish, and then hold it under the water and let him take it from your hand. It may be that it will help him to get to know you and like you.”
The girl picked up the porgy. She leaned over the side of the boat and struck it down hard and flat into the water. The dolphin came gliding up, and it took the fish from her fingers with the same gentleness that had amazed and delighted the boy. She reached out and touched the dolphin while it was crushing and swallowing the fish. It submitted to her caress for a moment, and then it swam off lazily. It turned fifteen yards out and then swam back to the side of the boy. The girl was delighted with her small success.
“I touched it, Paul, and he let me touch him!” she cried excitedly. “Did you see it? Did you see it happen?”
“Yes, I saw it.”
“Can I give him another fish?” the girl asked. She saw the flicker of alarm and uncertainty which passed across his face. “Please, Paul,” she implored him quickly.
Once again the boy fought the unwillingness that was in him. “All right,” he said eventually. “Give him one of the cacatois.”
“Can’t I give him the bourjois?” the girl asked. “It is a much better fish.”
He knew it was a better fish, and that was why he had told her to give one of the wrasse to the dolphin. He wanted to save the better fishes for later, when he could give them to his friend himself. He was about to refuse angrily, but then he remembered how he had almost made her cry when he had been riding the dolphin in the water.
“Très bien,” he said. “Take one of the bourjois.”
The girl fed the snapper to the dolphin, and she touched it while it ate. The big fish allowed her to scratch it a little longer than it had the last time, and then suddenly it came up out of the water. It stood on its tail for a moment, its head level with her face, and then it sank back into the sea and came up beside the boy.
“Paul!” the girl cried deliriously. “Did you see what it did just now?”
“I saw it.”
“Oh, Paul, I think the marsouin is beginning to like me a little,” she said. “Do you not think so?”
“He is getting to know you, I think,” the boy admitted a little reluctantly.
“Can I ride on his back now, Paul?” she asked breathlessly.
The boy bristled silently, but the resentment in him died as suddenly as it had come. “Get into the water over the stern,” he said quietly. “Do it as I did, and do not splash and make a noise or you may frighten Marsouin away.”
The girl snatched the mask down over her face. She slipped over the side of the stern and into the water, doing it the way she had seen the boy do it. She kicked out, swimming towards him. The dolphin darted away at her approach. It circled nervously twenty feet off, but then the boy whistled and called to it softly and it came back and nudged at him impatiently with its beak. He caressed it reassuringly, running his fingers up and down its back.
“Come round to the other side of him,” he said, keeping his voice very low. “When I put my arm around his neck I will let go of the pirogue. I will hold him, and the weight of my body will take him down a little in the water. When that happens you must get upon his back quickly, and then you must hold on with your legs and with your arms because he will be moving the
moment you are on his back.”
The girl swam round slowly to the other side of the dolphin. She tickled it gently on its belly. To her delight and relief the fish did not dart away. The big domed head turned towards her, and she found herself being examined by a large brown eye which was barely eighteen inches from her face. It did not look at all like the eye of a fish, and it appeared enormous at that range.
“There is another thing I will tell you about,” the boy went on. “If he takes you deep and stays down and you have finished your air, ease the grip of your legs and arms a little and he will rise again to the surface to allow you to breathe.”
He paused for a moment, trying to assess the expression on her face. He saw the uneasiness in the eyes which stared out from behind the water-speckled plate of the mask, and he continued quickly.
“It is what I have found,” he said. “And I have also found that it is possible to guide him in whichever direction you want to go by putting an arm straight out in the water.”
“I do not understand, Paul,” the girl whispered.
“If you wish to make him swim to the left,” the boy went on patiently, “push your left arm out in the water at right angles to your body.” He demonstrated quickly with his right arm and then went back to stroking the dolphin. “Marsouin will keep turning to the left while you have your arm extended, and then as soon as you remove the drag of your arm he will stop his turn and continue straight on along his new heading. In the beginning it was the drag of my arm which turned him, but I think he has now come to understand it as a signal.”
“I understand,” the girl said. “But what if it does not work for me?”
“Then the only thing you can do is fall off his back and swim back to the pirogue,” the boy replied. “It is not much of a hardship, is it?”
“No, it is not much.”
“There is one other thing I must tell you,” the boy said. “Do not squeeze him too hard with your legs or your arms when you hold to his body. He does not like it, and he might throw you off or you may hurt something inside him.”
The girl nodded quickly. “I will be careful.”
“And be awake when you put an arm out to turn him,” the boy warned her. “The drag of the water might tear you from his back if you are not careful. Lie as flat as you can along his body, and hold him firmly.”
“I will remember to do it,” the girl assured him.
“You are ready now?” the boy asked.
He saw her nod, and he let go of the gunwale and sank down into the water beside the big fish. He brought himself back to the surface with one kick of his legs and then he put his right arm around the neck of the dolphin.
“How can I get upon his back?” the girl asked in desperation. “I cannot jump up from where I am in the water.”
“Put your arm around his neck as I am doing,” the boy instructed her quietly. “And then let yourself float up beside him in the water.”
He caressed the dolphin while he spoke. When he saw that she was floating in the water beside the big fish he bore down gently on the body of the dolphin, lifting himself out of the water to do it.
“Now!” he whispered urgently, and he released the fish and sank below the surface.
The girl threw her left leg across the back of the dolphin and wrapped both her arms around its neck. The big fish came alive the instant it felt the weight of her body on its back. Its great bow-shaped flukes flashed down and up. It shot away from the side of the pirogue and dived instantly, the girl clinging grimly to its back.
The boy felt the wash of the great tail and he turned under the water to follow the flight of the fish. As it turned out, he need not have gone to all the trouble of telling her how to bring the dolphin to the surface and how to turn it in the water.
He saw the big fish dive. It went down to three fathoms and leveled off, and he saw the long hair of the girl streaming out behind her as she crouched down low across the back of the dolphin. It arrowed on for another twenty feet, and then suddenly, without any warning, it arched its body and went into a vertical dive. It went straight down, and then it tucked its head in under its belly and somersaulted on its nose. The abrupt maneuver unseated the girl, and she tumbled head over heels through the water in slow motion. The dolphin swam back towards him on its back, its white belly facing up. An instant before it reached him it turned over again with a graceful roll. It came up beside him the moment he surfaced.
He thought he saw an inquisitive and mischievous gleam in its eyes, and it seemed to him that the smiling line of its mouth was even more pronounced. He grinned slyly, stroking his hand along the bulging dome of its head. He put an arm around its neck and clung to it for support. When the girl swam up beside him he kept his face grave.
“He threw me off!” she spluttered indignantly, still gasping for breath.
“Try it again,” the boy said.
She mounted the dolphin, and this time she did it without his help. The big fish moved off with her on its back. She began to think she had been unjust in thinking it had thrown her off intentionally when it dived deeper and did exactly the same thing.
The boy waited for her to swim back, his face a careful blank. “Perhaps you are angering him by holding on too tightly,” he said innocently.
The girl studied him skeptically for a moment, and then she slipped her right arm over the neck of the dolphin and floated her body up in the water beside it. The second she was settled across its back the big fish swam forward and dived. She hung on grimly, determined not to be unseated by the sudden somersaulting dive which had twice already broken the grip of her arms and legs.
She tensed herself, trying to anticipate it. The dolphin leveled off at five fathoms and then looped upward and turned over with a brutal swiftness. She felt herself slipping, caught by the completely unexpected reversal of tactics. She tried to hang on, but the big fish rolled and flung her off its back.
She floundered helplessly for a moment before she got her bearings, and then she kicked out for the surface, the pressure in her lungs already intolerable. She knew now without a doubt that the big fish had done it purposely. Strangely enough she felt no animosity towards it. She began to think of it with a heightened admiration and respect. She surfaced with a last frantic kick of her legs and rolled over onto her back. She floated for a few moments, getting her breath back, and then she turned over and swam back to where the boy was treading water beside the dolphin. She saw that he was doing his best not to laugh.
“Did you see what he did?” she cried, trying to pretend an indignation she did not feel.
The boy shook his head solemnly. “I was above the surface,” he assured her hastily.
“You did see it!” the girl accused him. “I can see from the look on your face that you saw it all.”
It was too much for the boy. He burst into laughter, and to his surprise and relief he saw that she also began to laugh. The dolphin swam off and began to circle them, and he heard its excited whistling and squeaking. It sounded very funny, and he began to laugh even harder. He forgot all about moving his arms and legs to stay afloat, and his laughter died abruptly as his head sank below the surface. He came up spluttering and coughing, and he struck out for the pirogue. He clung to the gunwale while he recovered, choking and laughing at the same time.
“He was playing with you,” he gasped. “He was letting you know that in the water he is the one who matters.”
The girl swam over to the pirogue and clung beside him. “I think he had something like that in his mind,” she agreed.
“Perhaps when he knows you a little better he will not be so quick to throw you off.”
“But when will that be?”
The boy shrugged. “I do not know.”
“But did he throw you off in the beginning when you first started to ride on him?”
“No,” the boy admitted. “He has never done such a thing to me.”
The girl was silent for a while, pondering over what he h
ad just said. It would be a terrible thing if the fish did not allow her to ride it properly. Perhaps it never would. It was obvious that its relationship with the boy was a very special one. It had tolerated her on its back for a short while, but that was all. She had a sudden idea.
“Why do we not both ride on its back at the same time?” she asked. “I do not think he will throw me off if you are also on his back.”
The boy glanced at her. He thought about what it would be like, pressed close up against her and riding under the water. But then he thought of the great weight of both their bodies weighing down heavily on his fish. He shook his head quickly.
“It would be too much for him,” he said. “I would not wish him to be hurt.”
He swung around and caught hold of the gunwale with his other hand and then pulled himself out of the water. He scrambled into the pirogue and then he helped her up.
“I will give him the other fishes now,” he said.
“Let me give them to him, Paul,” she begged.
The boy hesitated a moment, but the look in her eyes was more than he could deny. “If you wish.”
“Thank you, Paul,” she said, and there was humility in her voice, because she knew from the expression on his face that the price had been high.
She fed the dolphin the four remaining fishes, the beak nosed wrasse first and then the two fat snapper. The dolphin watched her expectantly for a moment, whistling and blowing as it churned up and down beside the boat. She made no move to feed it again, and then after a while it dived suddenly and came up right beside the boat. It rose halfway out of the water, straight up on its tail, and it cocked its head and peered inquisitively into the pirogue.
”Tout y n’fini, Marsouin,” the boy murmured softly, sad for his fish.
The dolphin turned its head towards him. It regarded him curiously for a moment, and then it blinked once as if in understanding and sank back noiselessly into the water. He saw the dark speeding silhouette of its body below the surface, and he followed its flight out to sea till the shadow of its shape blended invisibly” with the darkening color of the water. It came up once, surfacing in its smooth breathing roll, and then he saw it no more. He turned to the girl, a strange heaviness in his heart. He wished that there had been another fish, just one, so that he could have given it to the dolphin himself.
