Onward Big Girl swam, far beyond Toy’s reach. Toy pushed clumsily against the waves but she could not catch up to the powerful turtle in her element. When the water reached her thighs Toy stopped. Her heart lurched as she watched Big Girl dive into an oncoming wave and disappear.
Standing alone in the swirling waters of the ocean, Toy thought again of her recurring dream. She saw again the great mother turtle, journeying through the dangers of the murky waters, following the call of instinct and knew with sudden clarity that she was the sea turtle in her dream. It was herself pushing through the crashing waves, propelled through the great current, swimming forward to find her way home.
She heard the crowd behind clap and cheer at Big Girl’s return to the sea. Toy knew a sudden sense of loss and took a few more steps into the depths, wildly searching the horizon for one more glimpse of the sea turtle. She’d rescued this loggerhead from the ocean, helped her to heal and grow strong. She wanted just one final chance to say goodbye.
For several minutes she stood in the water watching the horizon, feeling a growing despair. A long line of pelicans flew low over the water. A gull circled overhead, crying out its mocking laugh. She stood shivering, staring out. But Big Girl was gone.
With a heavy heart, she turned back toward the beach. The crowd had already begun dispersing, walking off in groups along beach paths. The television crew was packing up. She saw Emmi and Flo walking shoulder to shoulder back to their beach house, Flo’s hands gesticulating in the air as she spoke. Not far behind, Cara and Brett strolled hand in hand.
Her gaze landed at last upon the tall man standing at the water’s edge with his hand resting firmly on a little girl’s shoulder. Suddenly Lovie raced off across the beach to climb the dune. Perched at the top, she stretched out her arms to the sea in a heartfelt embrace of sea and sky. Wisps of her blond hair caught the wind to sail above her shoulders and she cried out with all the joy and exuberance and hope of youth.
“Goodbye, Big Girl! Goodbye!”
Toy swung her head around to scan the horizon once more. With a gasp she caught sight of the large glistening brown head of a loggerhead rising high from the water, far off in the distance. Toy’s heart lifted with joy and she brought her hand up in a wide, arcing wave.
“Goodbye, Big Girl!” she whispered. “Thank you!”
Then she watched as Big Girl dove a final time and disappeared under the dark water.
She turned back toward shore and saw Ethan standing at the shoreline, waiting. He stretched out his hand to her.
With a sudden brilliance her heart expanded with light. She waved her arm and quickened her steps as she moved toward shore. Lovie jumped up on tiptoe, then ran back to the shoreline calling out to her, “Mama!”
Toy felt herself carried by waves, gliding through liquid wind, propelled by love. She pushed on through the surf, stroking with her long, slender arms, reaching out to her family, finding her way home.
Dear Reader,
For millions of years the sea turtles have survived the changes and fluctuations of our planet. Recently, however, the species has been threatened with extinction. Sick, debilitated and injured sea turtles are increasing in number.
You can make a difference!
• Support your local sea turtle hospital!
• Lights out for sea turtles! Minimize beachfront lighting and avoid using flashlights or flash photography on the beach.
• Leave only your footprints on the beach! Remove toys, chairs and cabanas from the beach, fill in deep holes and don’t construct beach campfires. Turtles mistake plastic bags, balloons and Styrofoam for food.
• Boaters beware! Avoid sea turtles in the water.
• Vote for legislation that preserves and protects our oceans and beaches.
Sea turtle hospitals have been established around the world to help ensure the future of the species. Here in South Carolina, when a sick or unhealthy sea turtle is found along the coast it is brought to the Sea Turtle Hospital at the South Carolina Aquarium, where staff and volunteers can take care of it in the state-of-the-art facility.
If you’d like to support this worthy effort, you can make a donation to your local sea turtle hospital, or to:
Sea Turtle Hospital
South Carolina Aquarium
100 Aquarium Wharf
Charleston, SC 29401
Or go to www.scaquarium.org
Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital
P.O. Box 3012
822 Carolina Ave.
Topsail Beach, NC 28445
The turtles thank you!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Monroe’s novels are inspired by the natural world. For SWIMMING LESSONS, Mary Alice volunteered at the sea turtle hospital at the South Carolina Aquarium. In the novel she writes about the rehabilitation and release of a beautiful loggerhead on the Isle of Palms—“Big Girl.” The reader witnesses the transformation of the sea turtle from an emaciated, weak, barnacle-encrusted creature to a gleaming, healthy, strong specimen of a sea turtle in her prime. How is this symbolic of Toy’s transformation in the novel?
Toy raises the universal question, “Am I a good mother?” As Toy explores this question, she examines the tending instinct. Is the tending instinct, or the drive to nurture, inherited? Is it carried on the X chromosome? Or is being a good mother something that is a learned behavior?
Sea turtles are guided by their instinct to return to the beach of their birth, to leave the sea and to crawl ashore to dig a nest. Then they return to the sea, never to return to the nest. Despite this seeming abandonment, this is their biological model. They are following an instinct over 100 million years old. What makes a good mother in the human species? What instincts do we follow?
Toy’s story is a redemptive one. How did Miss Lovie change Toy’s life? How does Cara continue the tradition? Discuss how the power of one person—a role model or a mentor—has the power to change someone’s life.
In SWIMMING LESSONS, Toy’s life was changed by the influence of Miss Lovie, and later, the women in the Turtle Team. As the years pass, Toy’s daughter, Little Lovie, is raised by the “village” of the Turtle Team. Discuss how this kind of innovative family structure can provide a network of love and support.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the South Carolina Aquarium for their endless support during the writing of this book. The sea turtles in this story were case histories at the aquarium’s sea turtle hospital and their successful releases home to the sea are testament to the dedication of the staff and volunteers. In particular, Kelly Thorvalson, Kevin Mills, Jason Crichton, Shane Boylan and Arnold Postell.
Thank you also to Jean Beasely and the volunteers at the Karen Beasely Sea Turtle Hospital, North Carolina. At the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Marine Turtle Conservation Program, thanks to DuBose Griffin, Charlotte Hope, Sally Murphy, Joan Seithel. And to Meg Hoyle at the Botany Island Sea Turtle Program.
Special thanks to Micah and Daniel LaRoche of the Cherry Point Seafood company, and to Shane and Morgan Zeigler at Barrier Island Eco-Tour on Isle of Palms.
My love and thanks to fellow Isle of Palms/Sullivan’s Island Turtle Team members and to all the volunteers who walk the beaches for our beloved loggerheads.
Many thanks to my editors, Margaret O’Neill Marbury and Martha Keenan, to my agents Robert Gottlieb and Kim Whalen, and to Eileen Hutton at Brilliance Audio.
As always, I am forever grateful for the support of my family: Markus, Gretta and Zack Kruesi, and Claire, John and Jack Dwyer.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5980-9
SWIMMING LESSONS
Copyright © 2007 by Mary Alice Kruesi.
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Swimming Lessons Page 38