“Ah!” Marisa yelped.
She fell on top of him and fought back, clawing and kicking. A knee aimed at racking him connected with his upper thigh instead. She yanked his head back, near tearing his hair out.
Lenny refused to let go, elbowing her face with his other arm. He saw her feral eyes briefly, then red when her knee connected with his groin. Lenny gasped for air and let go. His eyes stung with tears. He fuzzily saw Marisa run straight at a twenty-five foot concrete slab wall.
Marisa defied gravity. Just before it seemed she would fall, she kicked off and grabbed the top of the ledge. She pulled herself up and swung over the top.
Don’t lose her, Len! Get inside!
Paulo, you okay? Racer asked. Chidi, what happened?
She hopped the fence!
Huh?
She hopped into the rattlesnake fence! Chidi said. Len…Len, you there?
Pavilion… Lenny coughed. Get to the pavilion.
He looked up at the wall Marisa climbed. No way I’m gettin’ ova that thing. Have to go around. Lenny crawled to his knees. He gingerly held his groin in the event it fell off when he stood. Then he made his way back to the pavilion’s main entrance.
The line had died down to a few people. Lenny limped by the ticket-taker.
“Whoa, whoa,” she reached out to stop him. “I need to see—”
“My friend’s inside,” Lenny said.
“Okay, but I need to see your ticket first.”
“I lost it.”
“Oh,” she said. “Well, I’m sorry, you can’t go in then.”
“Look, lady. I told ya I lost it.”
“And I’m awfully sorry about that, but I can’t let you in, especially not with that attitude. Anyway, it’s against regulation. We give out a set number of tickets per show, otherwise we can’t fit everyone.”
Lenny debated whether he could run up the steps fast enough. His groin warned against it.
“Listen, lady. I neva seen a dolphin. It’s the only reason I wanted to come here today. Can’t ya do me a solid and lemme in?”
“I’m sorry. Rules are rules.”
Lenny decided to make a break for it.
“Aw, don’t you think you could let him in, Angie?” a cutesy girl voice asked. “Everyone should see a dolphin show at least once in their life.”
“Sorry, Sydney—”
Lenny glanced over his shoulder. This crew again?
“The park has rules,” the zoo employee—Angie—finished.
An announcer’s voice boomed from inside the open doors at the top of the stairwell, thanking the list of sponsors for the show.
“Oh! They’re starting!” Sydney whined. “Please, Ang?”
Angie crossed her arms.
She’s not gonna give in, girlie, Lenny thought to himself. Not without a little push…
“This has all just been a misunderstanding,” Sydney shot a look at Lenny. “Right?”
Lenny reached up and slid his arm around Sydney’s waist. Her back stiffened. “Don’t worry about it, babe—”
Angie’s eyes widened. “Babe?”
“Yeeeaah,” Sydney said. “It’s kind of a surprise.”
“Oh…well…I wouldn’t want to ruin that. We both know how much your mom loves surprises.”
Angie looked around to see if anyone watched. She ushered the teens on.
“Thanks!” Sydney said. “I owe you one, Ang!”
Lenny gimped up the steps. He tried to hold tight on Sydney’s hand. “Come on,” he said. “It’s all part of the show—”
“No! It’s not.”
Sydney shook free of his grip and took the steps two at a time.
“You could say thank you…” Garrett said.
Lenny stared at the Orc. His patchy skin begged the question of how he had drifted so far from his pod, alone, and did not know his true origins. Don’t worry ‘bout him, Lenny’s conscious warned. Get the one ya been sent to hunt first!
“Nah…Not my nature, kid.”
“You’re hilarious, dude,” Hickey laughed. “Weaver’s just mad he didn’t think of it.”
“Weava?” Lenny said. “Thought his name was Garrett.”
“Well, yeah,” said Hickey. “Garrett Weaver.”
Lenny made a mental note of the Orc’s full name. “Then Weava can copy my example any time he wants.” He pushed his way to the top of the landing where Sydney waited.
“Well?” she said expectantly.
Lenny winked at her and kept walking. “Catch ya later, doll face.”
“Ugh! You’re welcome!”
Lenny entered through the narrow corridor just as the announcement of zoo sponsors ceased playing. A cheesy, hip-hop beat replaced it, booming through the overhead speakers. Lenny glanced up once inside the main area. The pavilion had a domed ceiling, unlike many open-air, dolphin pavilions he had seen at other aquariums during his hunt for Marisa Bourgeois.
A musty, chemical smell hung in the air. Lenny walked between the outer complex on his right and a ten-foot-high dolphin tank wall to his left. He peeked through the pane window, saw the pool descended another twenty feet.
Other latecomers to the show ushered him to move faster.
“Hey!” he yelled over his shoulder. “Does it look like I can go any fasta? Stop pushin’!”
Ahead he saw several sections of audience bleachers. Posted signs designated ‘The Splash Zone!’ area closest to the tank. Lenny knew he would have a better shot of getting by the ticket-taker again without Sydney’s help than finding a seat down there.
Len, where are you? Racer asked.
Pavilion.
How did you get in? The employee out here won’t let me by. Chidi tried to use a different door, but it’s locked. Paulo’s searching for another entrance.
The final dolphin show of the day made for a packed house. Lenny scanned the crowds. How am I supposed to find one girl in all this mess? His earrings flashed. Paulie, how ya doin’?
I’ll let you know when I get my hands on her.
Where are ya now?
Around back, Paulo answered. It’s the only other set of doors I see. There’s some employees smoking nearby it. No way I can get in without causing a scene. I’ll keep watch on it though.
Good, Lenny said. Cheeds?
Waiting by the chimpanzee pens. I have the lower exit covered.
We’re solid! Racer said.
We thought that twice already. Any sign of Oscar and Henry?
No, but that’s a good thing, right? Racer asked.
Not when I could use anotha couple sets of eyes. We’ll see. Stay sharp out there.
Safe in the knowledge his crew waited at the various exit points, Lenny ran through his options. The Splash Zone’s a no-go. I try to squeeze in there and a kid gets upset, I get tossed. Can’t cut across the middle for the far end either. If she’s sittin’ high she’ll see me walkin’ by. Lenny targeted the third tier of bleachers. If ya can’t get low, betta go high.
An obese father dragging his equally chunky kid along passed by.
Lenny trailed him. He veered right after ascending several rows and accidentally bumped into some teens, texting on their cell phones, as he sat down. None acknowledged his existence.
The music and crowd noise died, replaced by what sounded like low thrums from a wood chipper as the dolphins called to one another.
Lenny took in the pool view.
The length of the main tank spanned the entire room, just over fifty yards long, and it had two additional, smaller, holding tanks attached to either side of it. A pair of neon orange balls and a pink hula hoop dangled twenty feet above the surface. The strings holding them in place could hardly be seen, and gave the impression magic suspended them there.
The main trainer’s stage resembled a quaint New England beachside. An antiquated barn-turned-general-store, painted fire engine red with greyed shingles stood as the centerpiece. Fir trees and a two-storied blue shed neighbored either side of it with a painted
backdrop of clouded skies and grey seas behind.
Far to the pool’s left, Lenny saw another miniature water tower; a trainer exited another staged New England home beside it and opened the gate of the nearest holding pool.
A grey torpedo sped past the side glass windows.
Lenny only saw the last bit of its tail. Show’s startin’, he said to his crew. Bet Marisa stays here till after. If she makes a move now she risks bein’ seen. Don’t get too comfortable though.
Lenny faintly saw three more blurry shapes rush out of the holding area, one after the other. All three raced around the pool. The house lights dimmed.
Cheers erupted around from the crowd.
“Ladies and gentlemen—” a male announcer’s voice echoed from the loudspeakers. “And children of all ages, at this time our trainers and dolphin friends would like to welcome you to the Indianapolis Zoo’s dddddddDOLPHIN SHOOOOOW!”
“Ya gotta be kiddin’ me,” Lenny said aloud.
A second wave of cheers and whistles drowned him out.
“At this time, please join me in welcoming your host for this afternoon, NAAAAATTTTTIIIEEEE GGGGGAAAOOOOO!”
The house lights brightened. Two dolphins flew out of the water completing somersaults in rhythm with one another.
A woman walked onto the staged dockside, her wetsuit black with a light blue strip down the left side. She waved at the crowd as she came to the center. “How’s everyone doing today?” she asked, her voice bubbling with happiness through the overhead speakers.
The audience responded with predictable enthusiasm.
Lenny rolled his eyes.
“All right!” she said after the applause died down. “My name is Nattie Gao and I’m excited you’re here! Now…who’s ready to see some dolphins?”
“We are!” the crowd roared in unison.
Nattie blew her whistle and lifted her arms.
A dolphin slid onto a nearby stage and used its tail to flick water onto those sitting in the Splash Zone.
“More! More! More!” the children screamed.
“Yeah! That’s what we like to hear!” Nattie cheered them on as she walked around the edge of the pool. “First, let’s meet some of our friends here with us today! Let’s hear it for…Mage!”
A light grey dolphin beached itself on the edge. It clicked at the audience, and shook the lower half of its body back and forth. A trainer tossed a fish into its open mouth.
“Mage is a bottlenose dolphin,” Nattie explained. “He’s one of the four males we have here at our aquarium! Next, we have another male…give it up for Uriah!”
A darker dolphin with light spots on its backside leapt from the water. It seemed to hang in the air before touching one of the suspended balls with its beak.
The crowd roared in approval.
“You might have already guessed it by the spots down his back,” Nattie said. “Uriah is a spotted dolphin!”
These Drybacks didn’t know that, Lenny thought. They don’t know nothin’ about the Salt, lady.
“Okay, girls!” Nattie said. “Time to meet our speedster…Amelia!”
A third dolphin flew from the water, this one with crisscrossing swatches of yellow and light grey down both sides of its body. Amelia performed a double somersault before reentering.
The crowd—especially the young girls—went even wilder.
“How’s that for girl power?” Nattie asked. “Amelia is a common dolphin. You can tell her apart because the sides of her body look like a painted hourglass!”
All right, already. Get on with it. Lenny scanned the crowd for Marisa.
Nattie climbed the ladder at the forefront stage. She waded into the pool roughly a foot deep, and paced back and forth as she spoke.
“You can find dolphins all over the world! Like many of you out there today, dolphins make up part of a school, or pod, although it’s not like the schools you go to,” she added with another laugh.
Could ya sound any more fake, lady?
“Dolphins are also one of the most playful and intelligent animals in the animal kingdom!” Nattie continued. “They have excellent hearing and eyesight, both in and out of the water, and they use echolocation to find their prey! And did you know that dolphins have also been known to protect divers and shipwrecked sailors from sharks?”
“Nooooo!” some bratty kids near Lenny said.
“Well, they do!” Nattie fake-laughed again. “The dolphins swim in a protective circle around the humans and have even been known to charge sharks at times!”
Lenny’s eyes flitted to a teen girl standing up near the back of the bleachers.
She slapped a boy next to her and then sat back down, giggling.
Lenny slumped. Where are ya, Bourgeois?
“And now, without further ado,” Nattie’s voice rose dramatically. “We here at the aquarium have a special treat for all of you!”
Movement! Another girl in the stands stood, one Lenny recognized. Doll face? What’s she so excited about?
Sydney had put her fingers in her mouth to whistle.
Lenny watched her try to pull the Orc to his feet. What was it the fat one called him? Lenny thought back to their earlier exchange. Weava?
Sydney shrugged and clapped in rhythm with the crowd.
“Okay,” Nattie said. “I think she’s built up enough speed. Cheer her on everyone…”
The crowd rose to their feet.
Buckets of Blood, people. Sit down! Lenny shoved his way to the aisle so he could see.
“And give a warm round of applause for our oldest dolphin…Wilda!”
The upper torso of a grandmotherly woman burst from the middle of the pool. Her silvery hair wetly fell past her bare shoulders, covering her chest. As she rose out of the water, Lenny saw her human torso merged into a sleek grey dolphin tail just beneath her bellybutton.
Lenny gasped. What’s a Merrow doin’ in a Dryback pool?
She rose toward the dangling hoop—gracefully twisting in mid-air with her arms at her sides—and floated through without touching it. As gravity beckoned her home, she elegantly raised her pale arms over her head. Her palms came together as the tips of her fingers broke the water’s surface. She reentered with a teensy splash and vanished.
The crowd went wild.
Yet no one had screamed at the sight of a half-woman, half-dolphin. The annoying teens next to Lenny weren’t calling or texting their friends to relay what they witnessed. Lenny continued his slow surveillance of the crowd, and found only one other person who noticed.
Weava…
GARRETT
“Hickey! Did you see—”
“Wow! Craziness, man!” Johnny shouted at Garrett. “Told you dolphins rocked!”
Garrett stood. The three younger dolphins had joined Sydney’s mom on the main stage, all of them arching their tails. None looked either half-human or half-dolphin.
“Hickey! Did you see her?”
“Who?”
“The lady! The old lady!”
“I can barely hear you, man!” Johnny turned back to the show.
“Look at my mom!” Sydney pointed. “Isn’t she great?”
Garrett’s eyes searched from one end of the pool to the next.
Sydney put her fingers in her mouth and whistled. “Yeah, Mom!”
“Oh, man, so awesome,” Johnny clapped harder.
“I know!” Sydney said. “Can you believe Wilda jumped through the hoop at the end? She’s getting too old for that sort of thing.”
Too old? Garrett grabbed Sydney by the shoulders. “You saw her too?”
“Of course I did!”
“What did she look like?”
Sydney’s forehead wrinkled. “Huh?”
“Like a dolphin going through a Hula Hoop, dude,” said Johnny. “What else?”
“Neither of you saw a woman?”
“You mean Nattie?”
“I’m not talking about Sydney’s mom, Hickey!” Garrett’s voice cracked. “Neither of yo
u saw a woman with a tail?”
Johnny snorted. “Dude, you’re talking crazy—“
“I’m not crazy!” Garrett said, louder than he meant to. He sat down hard. “I know what I saw…an old woman with a dolphin tail! She jumped out of the water…went through the hoop…then straight back in! You guys really didn’t see her?”
Sydney wouldn’t look at him.
“Weaves,” Johnny said. “I think swallowing all that pool water yesterday has you seeing things.”
Garrett stood up. “I saw her.”
“Saw what? A mermaid?” Johnny suggested. “Let me guess—scaly green fishtail, seashell bra…smoking hot redhead?”
“Wha—no,” Garrett said. “She had a grey tail. And, well, I mean she looked old enough to be your grandma. I didn’t see a bra.”
“An old and topless mermaid?” Johnny’s face squinched. “If this is some kind of joke, you win. Ugh. Now I’m just picturing old, saggy, granny boobs on a dolphin. Gross.”
“I’m not making this up, Hickey!”
“Garrett,” Sydney said. “Lower your voice…”
Most of the crowd had gone. The few waiting for the rest to clear out now led their kids away from Garrett.
She thinks I’m crazy. Garrett looked back at the pool. Every so often a dolphin would swim by the viewing panes. None of them had any parts that remotely looked human. Maybe I am crazy.
“Do you still want to go down and see the dolphins up close?” Sydney finally asked. “I mean…we don’t have to, if…you know. If you don’t want.”
Johnny blew a bubble and popped it. “Heck yeah, we’re going! Maybe Weaver can see this topless granny mermaid up close!”
Garrett didn’t laugh. Neither did Sydney. In fact, she still wouldn’t look at him directly. Say something!
“No, let’s go,” said Garrett. “I just didn’t want my chlorakitis dronemetia to flare up again.”
Lame, Weaves. So lame.
Sydney smirked. “I get it. Probably shouldn’t be near a pool with those kinds of symptoms...”
“Let’s go already!” Johnny hooted. He jumped from one bleacher down to the next and almost lost his balance.
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