The Killer Whale

I wasn't always trapped by these invisible walls, isolated from my pod. I used to swim for miles and miles on end, free to hunt and eat whenever I pleased. Now I'm forced to do little tricks for a crowd filled with tiny children whose screams hurt my ears. Now I have to wait to be fed some mix of fish I never had before this place.

Now I just swim around and around in circles waiting for some sort of interaction, any sort of stimulation for my brain. I hate relying on these humans for food or interactions. I wasn't made to be confined by these walls. I was made to swim free.

Most of the time I see the humans on the other side of the invisible walls. Their small, weird faces pressed against it like I'm some impossible thing and they can't believe I exist. Some of them bang against the walls, causing a loud noise that scares me even from the other side of the space. I can't ever escape it. And sometimes it doesn’t end for what feels like hours.

Sometimes they throw these large round things that float into my space. I like to play with those, I can send them flying in the air. If humans are watching when I do that, I get tasty treats thrown into the water, though the noise the children make hurts. I try to put up with it for the snacks. Sometimes they throw multiple in at once, and I can swim from one to another or play catch with them.

For a while none of the humans came down to interact with me. They didn’t come to see me no matter how much I tried to say ‘hi’ to them. No matter how much I tried, nothing seemed to work. Eventually, though, one of them came down to the water. She had a sweet voice, very smooth and calming. I wanted to come up to her right away, but I made myself wait. I didn’t want to get my hopes up or fall into another trap.

She started coming every day, always talking with a sweet voice and bringing fish to give me. Slowly, I started coming closer and closer, until she reached out to try and touch me. It startled me, and I snapped at her. I didn’t mean to scare her, and I don’t believe she meant to scare me, but that’s what happened. I immediately said sorry to her, not wanting to lose the first companion I’ve made since being brought here, but she was already gone. I sulked for the rest of the day. The round things didn’t hold the same interest today, I couldn’t bring myself to play with them. I picked a corner of my space and stayed there as much as I could. Eventually I fell asleep.

I tried not to get my hopes up too much when it came time for her to come again, I knew I had messed up and she was too scared to come back. I started to distract myself by swimming in circles, hoping that the time would pass by faster. It didn’t really help at all. Eventually I gave up and decided to go back to my corner.

Then her voice called out over the water. I spun around in excited circles, trying to show her I was happy to see her. She let out a laugh and called me over, a fish in her hand. I swam over, though I misjudged how close I was and ended up out of the water on the shore next to her. I sat there for a second and we looked at each other with shock before she started laughing again. She tossed a fish in the air for me, which I skillfully caught with no problem. I watched her closely, waiting to see the same movement from yesterday to see if she was going to try to touch me again. I was ready for it today, I had a feeling she wouldn’t hurt me, so I was patiently waiting for her to make the move.

I was right. She tried again, and this time I was able to stay calm. Her hand made contact with my forehead, and I heard her let out a small breathy laugh. I pushed against her hand a bit, and she reached into a bucket and pulled out another fish. I opened my mouth, and she tossed me the fish. I pushed myself back into the water and did a little happy swim, before coming back and splashing her a bit. I accidentally knocked over the bucket with the fish, and it fell into my space. I happily ate the fish and pushed the bucket back to her as she laughed.

She came everyday. Sometimes she’d try to teach me tricks, which had a 50/50 chance of being successful. Some of them were easy, like swimming up onto the shore or catching small oranges. Others were more difficult, like balancing one of the round things on my snout or catching them mid-jump. Eventually we started to do these in front of more humans. They’d gather around my space and scream as I did the tricks with her. I got really good at them.

One day she came dressed in a very weird outfit. It was all black, and didn’t look comfortable at all. I watched as she set the bucket down near the edge of the shore, and then I noticed her look at another human I hadn’t realized was there. I stayed back, wary of the newcomer. Then she did something I wasn’t expecting: she jumped in the water.

I swam forward, diving a bit so I could get under her and lifted her out of the water. This silly human, she wasn’t made to live in the water What could she be thinking? I voiced my concerns to her as I moved towards the shore with her clinging to my dorsal fin. She had the audacity to laugh at me, even after I saved her. I blew air out of my blowhole to show her my annoyance at her lack of a thank you. She tossed me a fish and patted my snout while talking in that sweet voice she has.

After that she wore that same weird clothing almost every day. And everyday she got in the water. Sometimes she brought toys in with her, and just swam around while I played with the toys. I didn’t mind having her here, it was nice to have someone in the water with me. Eventually she started doing it during the shows we did for the other humans, causing some of them to scream in fright and others to cheer excitedly. Everything was going great. I had a friend, and sometimes she’d bring other humans to come say hello. I got some interaction and stimulation for my brain, and I was given yummy snacks.

One day, during one of the shows where she wasn’t in the water with me, something bad happened. A smaller human fell into my space, causing everyone else to panic. He couldn’t keep himself above the water very well, and I swam over to help him. I nudged him with my snout, trying to get him to grab my fin. It took a couple tries for him to understand, even with me telling him: grab on tiny human. Everyone was screaming above me, and it was really scaring me, but I had to focus on getting the boy to her. She called my name and I made sure to carefully swim over to her and onto the shore. Everyone had finally stopped screaming, and I was able to relax a bit with the quiet. She gave me a bunch of fish, after grabbing the boy off of my back, and then they were gone.

Eventually her visits became less frequent. There were less and less humans coming to the shows we put on, and her voice was becoming more and more sad. She came in one day, her face red and she hugged me and cried. I didn’t understand why she was crying, I tried to tell her 'it was okay' but that seemed to just make her cry harder. We didn’t practice any tricks that day. She just swam in the water with me, laughing when I would gently nudge her, and poking my snout in return. She was there with me for hours, way longer than she normally would be. She didn’t get out of the water until another human came and yelled for her. Then she started crying again, her entire body shaking as she yelled at him. She came back to me and gave me another hug, before finally leaving.

That was the last day I saw her. After that, it was back to how it was before she started visiting me. It felt as if it was all a dream, and sometimes I got convinced that it was, but then I’d swear I’d see her on the other side of the invisible walls, and I’d remind myself that it actually happened. I tried to tell the other humans I wanted her to come back, that I wanted my friend back but they never listened.

Then one day, a bunch of my food was thrown in my space. It was confusing, the mixture turning the clear water a murky pink shade. I ate as much as I could, finally able to be full. There was still a bit left, and I tried to avoid that part of the space to not disturb it. The next day, I ate the rest of the food, and waited for them to come feed me again. But they didn’t come.

They didn’t come the next day, or the day after that, either. After about a week, I realized I hadn’t seen any humans around my space, above or below the water. The realization saddened me. They had forgotten me. I had hoped that she would come back. That hope made me hold on for as long as I could, but I felt myself growing weaker and weaker the longer I went without food. I have now realized that if she does come, it will be too late. I’m not going to be able to hold on much longer. All I can do now is remember all the times I spent with her, and how much fun we had on that last day.

It was those memories that gave me comfort when the darkness finally came and took me away from my confinement with invisible walls.