The next day, the three vacation-goers headed for the Miami Sea Aquarium. “I hear that it’s almost as good as Sea World, it just doesn’t have the trademark name behind it,” Helen explained. They explored every part of the park and went to all the shows, and the more Orion saw, the more he felt a connection with what he saw. When he felt the wings of a Bat Ray at the Stingray Rock, he felt the “something” come alive again like it did in his dream.
Everything started to fall into place when they went to the Dolphin Show. His eyes opened wider as he saw those magnificent creatures leap in formation in the air. Those seven dolphins did almost every acrobatics trick in the book and the longer they performed, the more impressed Orion became.
After the show ended, Helen took Orion and Penelope to see one of the trainers. “Penny?”
The blonde announcer recognized her. “Helen, is that you? It’s been a while, how are you?”
“I’m pretty good. Penny, this is my nephew, Orion and his girlfriend, Penelope.”
“Hello, Orion, I’ve heard so much about you. I hear you’re quite the poet.” He blushed, “I guess I am.”
“So, what brings you here?”
“Well, I wanted to take Orion and Penelope on vacation so we can have some quality time together.”
“We really enjoyed your show,” Penelope interjected.
“Thank you.”
Orion cut in, “Excuse me, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about those magnificent creatures of yours.”
“Of course,” Penny smiled.
“How do you train your animals? Training them seems to be a difficult task.”
“Oh, not at all. Dolphins are very intelligent. It first requires them to develop trust with their trainers. Usually to teach them a trick, the trainer will give the dolphin a signal and if done correctly, the dolphin gets either a fish or a special toy that they enjoy. We try not to use too many fish since they tend to get full after a while and won’t want to work anymore.”
“I see. How long have you had those creatures at this park?”
“We received a few of them from other water parks and some of them have been bred in captivity. It usually takes a few weeks to a month to get them to learn all the tricks we’d like them to know.”
Out of nowhere, one of the dolphins came up to the surface and curiously leaned up in their direction. He pointed, a bit nervous, “There’s one behind you.”
She looked over and laughed, “Oh, that’s just Peanut. She loves to play with children.” She smiled, “Would you like to come and meet her up close?”
“You could do that?”
“Sure, we’ve got plenty of time between now and the next show. I don’t see why not.”
“Wow, thanks. That’s really nice of you.” He wheeled in behind the gates, followed by Penelope and Helen.
When they got inside the gate, Peanut came right to the edge to greet them. Penny fed her a fish.
Orion ‘stepped’ in, “Hi, I’m Orion.” Peanut looked like she was smiling. He wheeled closer to the edge and got out of his chair, reaching over to pet her under the chin. “I really wish that I could swim with you,” he whispered so only Peanut could hear him. She swam back as he tried to reach her, but he fell in.
Penny and Penelope cried out at once, “Orion!”
At first, all he could see was the dark ocean blues of the dolphin pool. He felt completely alone and isolated. He fell completely asleep in eternal darkness. He tried to wake himself up before he started to drown, but his dreams had already taken control of his mind. He dreamed of swimming around in the realm of the mermaids. He was confused on how he was swimming. He looked at himself; noticing that he was topless and his legs were replaced with a long, slender tail like that of a dolphin. He kicked his tail and found himself able to swim faster than he had ever been able to wheel himself around. He looked around and heard a sound. It sounded like the clicking of a dolphin, but then heard something singing like a whale. He looked ahead and saw something dark moving towards him. He quickly knew that it was Peanut and he found himself waking up a second later.
His eyes suddenly opened and he tried to kick his feet, trying to look around for Peanut. He was unaware that she had come underneath him to help him swim to the surface. As he was riding up, he was completely confused about why he wasn’t even afraid. He knew he was never able to swim and would never be able to swim, but for some reason, he wasn’t afraid of drowning. He just knew that he had to breathe soon since his lungs were starting to ache. He tried to kick his feet and Peanut swam faster. He was starting to see the light of the surface when there was a huge flash of light that nearly blinded him.
He felt a sudden rush and felt his body break the surface of water. He coughed and gasped for air, crawling off of Peanut to the edge of the platform. Penelope and Helen crowded around him immediately, shouting, “Orion!”
Penny went to help him up, “Are you all right?”
He laid there, coughing uncontrollably, trying to empty out his flooded lungs. He shivered with the coldness of the ocean water that he came out of. He felt the trainer put a towel on him and start to dry him off. His eyes were shut as he was blinded by the light from before. He was unaware that the stands were starting to crowd with the audience for the next show and many curious people went close to the wall of the tank to see what was going on.
In the next minute, a few of the medical experts from the park came to help Orion up. His mind couldn’t recover from its shock of nearly drowning, at least the physical part of his mind. The other part was still confused about the phenomenon from before. His consciousness started returning as he was hearing the staff calling his name.
He immediately opened his eyes to see about five people crowded around him, “What’s going on here?” He asked, still a bit confused.
Penelope sighed in relief, “Orion, are you all right?”
“I think so.” He said in a daze. “Answer my question and I’ll tell you.”
“Orion, you nearly drowned!” She almost cried out, “I was so scared that you were dead.” She threw her arms around him in tears and he knew only to embrace her back.
“You slipped in,” Penny told him as he looked at her, confused.
“I don’t get how I did it, but for a second, I felt like I was actually swimming.” He heard a little splash and Peanut calling to him inside the pool. He smiled and pointed, “Peanut brought me to the surface and saved my life.” Peanut made clicking noises, lay on her side and waved with her fin. He smiled, “Thanks so much for saving my life, Peanut.” He laid his head back, completely exhausted, almost wanting to fall asleep again.
Helen, however, didn’t give it a second thought, “Come on, Orion, I think it’s time for us to go.” She helped him into his wheelchair and wheeled him out to the parking lot, waiting for a hotel shuttle to take him back.
Penelope shook off her frustration. “You really scared me, you know.”
“I did?” He looked up, confused.
“You didn’t realize what just happened, do you?”
“I do, but,” he fidgeted with his fingers, “somehow, I don’t understand what happened. I felt like I was wrapped in a different world for the minute I was down there. That was unexplainable, the way it happened, but it may be another step.”
“A step on what?”
“A step to finding my destiny. First I was in the ocean and felt like I was at peace under the water and now this happens. There has to be more to this, there just has to be.”
“So that’s why you were so wet yesterday,” Penelope massaged Orion’s shoulder. “Orion, you know you can’t swim.”
“I also know that I can’t feel the ocean run past my feet, ever.” He sighed, “Why did God let me have that accident that paralyzed me?” He wiped his eyes in case some tears were ready to fall.
In the shuttle, Penelope hadn’t said a word since they left the park. “Penelope, I’m sorry I scared you. I wish it were simpler than this, but I have to know if my dreams are telling me something important.”
There was a long pause, “I don’t care if you don’t support what I’m after, but I feel there’s still something to me that I still don’t understand. I feel like I need to be somewhere else and now’s my time to find out why.”
“I support you, Orion, but you’re talking about some big things here. Fate and destiny, do you have any idea what could happen to you?”
“I’m willing to take that risk, Penelope, because that’s why I’m here. I’ve never taken any risks in my life and now, I’m finally going to do something with mine to find myself.”
Penelope wiped her eyes, “Promise me that I won’t lose you, Orion,” she held onto him. “If anything happened, I wouldn’t know what I’d do.” She cried and Orion felt deep inside his heart that he had to embrace her back, in case something were to happen to him in Mexico.
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