My Guardian Shark

Marty the stuffed Great White Shark had been by Celeste Bloom’s side for as long as she could remember. Being that Celeste was only five years old, the time spent with Marty hadn’t been long. Marty slept in her bed, the soft fabric that held together his cotton insides always soft and comforting to Celeste at night. More than this though, Marty made Celeste feel safe as she slept, and as she moved about the world while she was awake.

The only thing Celeste knew about where the stuffed shark came from had to do with her Daddy’s work. Her Daddy spent a great deal of time out on the ocean on big boats, studying the lives of Great White sharks. After one of these trips, Celeste’s Daddy came home with Marty the shark.

Today in the hospital was no different. Celeste hadn’t wanted to leave the house without Marty, so her Mommy made sure she had packed Marty within Celeste’s overnight duffel bag.

Celeste sat on the hospital bed, running her hand over Marty’s head. She couldn’t hear what the doctor was saying to her Mommy outside her room, Celeste could see beyond her Mommy’s cloth mask that she wanted to cry.

Her breath getting short again, Celeste had to lean back against her pillow and catch her breath. She hated being so tired. She hated how itchy and scratchy her throat felt, the burning painful itch that made Celeste cough all the time now. Celeste hated this cough; it scared her, the deep harsh sound that reminded Celeste of an angry dog barking. She wasn’t a dog, so she really hated this sound coming from her own mouth.

Most of all, Celeste hated the virus. The virus that had taken her out of school when she loved going to school, and kept her away from all of her friends. The virus that made the world around her both stop, and lose its mind. The virus that she knew (even if her Mommy and Daddy were trying to hide it from her) killed people everywhere. The virus Celeste knew was inside her little body right now.

Now Celeste saw the tears falling from her Mommy’s eyes and onto the mask she wore, forming dark little dots around the bridge of the mask’s nose.

Celeste hated seeing her Mommy cry. She wanted to tell Mommy everything would be okay, that Mommy should drink some water and take some deep breathes, the way her Mommy or Daddy would tell Celeste when she was crying. But Celeste couldn’t leave this room. The virus wouldn’t let her leave this room. She had to stay right here so she wouldn’t get anyone else sick, or at least that’s what the doctors had said to her Mommy when they arrived at the hospital. Celeste felt her throat begin to burn again, only this time it wasn’t only from the itchy urge to cough, but from the urge to cry and scream how this wasn’t fair. None of this was fair, not that she was sick, not that she hadn’t seen her Daddy in months because he got stuck on one of his big shark boats when the virus showed up. For someone as young as five year old Celeste, the idea of loneliness wasn’t one to easily articulate. In her own words, however, Celeste would say if she could how alone she felt at this very moment.

To her left, from the far side of the room, Celeste heard splashing. It made her head turn, curious. From her spot on the hospital bed, Celeste could see the water that had splashed onto the tiled floor of the bathroom.

Carefully, Celeste stepped down from the bed. When she stood in the doorway of the bathroom, Celeste realized two things. First, she didn’t have Marty the shark in her hands, nor was he left on her bed. Second, she didn’t feel winded as she had felt moments before.

In the bathroom, Celeste noticed the large bathtub that took up almost half of the small bathroom. Had the bathtub always been here? Celeste didn’t think so but she wasn’t really sure either.

Then Celeste saw the dorsal fin, moving from one end of the tub to the other.

“Marty?” Celeste asked as she approached the tub, without an ounce of fear. Sharks weren’t monsters; her Daddy had always told her, just animals who have gotten a bad reputation over the years.

At the edge of the tub, Celeste saw the nose of the shark poke out of the water. It was Marty. Somehow Marty was here, he was alive and he was looking at her. Marty looked at her as though he were waiting for her to say something, to do something, anything.

Celeste missed the water, she missed swimming, and she missed the ocean. What she missed most about the ocean when she wasn’t trying to dive into the waves, were the days she spent with her Daddy walking along the beach to sea dolphins in the water, as well as sharks from time to time.

So without an ounce of fear, Celeste stepped over the edge of the tub and into the water. It gave her the chills, the initial shock of the cold water, the reminder of all the oceans her Daddy worked in. Even with this chill, Celeste felt at home, she felt safe.

When she submerged her head under the water, Celeste dove deeper into the water, with Marty the shark swimming alongside her.

As they dove deeper and continued to swim onward, Celeste saw something bigger in the distance. She saw an underwater world, something straight out of “The Little Mermaid”, her favorite movie. Celeste didn’t want to leave.

“Can we go down there?” Celeste asked, pointing at the coral that had been chipped to look like a beautiful castle at the ocean floor. She turned to look at Marty. Even though he was now a full sized young adult shark now, with black scary eyes, Celeste still wasn’t afraid. What she saw in Marty’s eyes wasn’t the monster the world thought him to be. Celeste saw her friend. And in her friend’s eyes, Celeste saw a look of deep sadness. It made Celeste sad to see it.

“Are you sure?” Marty asked. “Are you sure you want to go there now?”

In the water, able to talk and breathe like the sea life and mermaids Celeste always loved, felt like a dream come true. She wanted to stay, or she had before she heard the sadness in Marty’s voice as he spoke, and saw it in his eyes as he looked back at her. It gave her the moment of doubt to stop and think about it differently.

“Are you going to stay with me?” Celeste asked. “If I go down to the castle, are you coming too?”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Once you decide to live here, my job will be finished. You will have made it here with my help, as your guardian. Once you’re here, you won’t need my help, since you won’t have anything else to worry about.”

“What about Mommy and Daddy? Will they be here too?”

“Not for a long time, Celeste.”

Celeste looked at the underwater castle and the city that surrounded it. She looked at it all for a long time, thinking of this beautiful world, and wondering if it could ever be truly beautiful without her Mommy and Daddy, and without Marty.

“I don’t want to stay here yet.”

The shark didn’t really smile, however, the look of relief and happiness was clear enough for Celeste to see.

“Let’s go home then.” Marty said.

They turned around and headed back toward the direction they came.

Celeste coughed, she coughed until she thought her stomach would fly out of her mouth and her throat would start bleeding.

She heard the frantic big words of the doctors around her begin to settle, all of them wearing their spaceman looking clothes that protected them from the virus.

She felt something in her mouth, in her throat, and then she felt her breath coming easier to her. Celeste could breathe again.

Once the activity had calmed down, Celeste looked at the small window on the door to her room, where her Mommy stood with an IPad in her hand, with Celeste’s Daddy on Facetime. Even from this distance and in her fatigue, Celeste could see their relieved expressions.

“Someone must be looking out for you.” One of the nurses said after taking Celeste’s vitals for the millionth time. “You gave us all quite the scare, but everything is looking very good, sweet pea.”

With the tubes in her mouth, Celeste couldn’t speak. But that didn't matter. She knew what she felt, and if she could speak she would say; “Yes, someone is watching over me. He’s not my guardian angel, but my guardian shark, and his name Marty.”

As Celeste drifted off to sleep, she pulled Marty, her stuffed Great White guardian shark, a little closer.

The End