The Dolphin Pod

At 60, I could no longer take the pressure of Wall Street. I sold out and bought the Sail Fish, a one-masted cabin cruiser. After a year of sailing the Caribbean Sea, I had become a decent sailor. The time alone after the press of the crowd in New York City was a decadent luxury.

It was late afternoon, and the sea was calm. I was running about four knots against the wind, when a fat old sea lion shot out of the sea on a wave and landed on the deck of the Sail Fish. A pod of angry Orca swam around the Sail Fish.

Two of the big ones started to ram the boat. I put on my life vest. Three hits, things started to get thrown around. Five hits, the framing started to creek and crack. Ten hits the Sail Fish was coming apart. I called on the radio, as the GPS went dark. The vessel was sinking fast. The radio seemed dead, and I was unsure if it was working.

“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday This is the Sail Fish! I am under attack by Orca. The boat is breaking up. I am abandoning ship and launching the emergency life raft. The boat is sinking fast, and I must leave now,” I said.

The life raft was hard to get into. The Orca kept swimming around me, and I felt uneasy. I could not believe it I was in a rubber life raft. The Sail Fish was gone. I could hear an Orca. It got louder. Suddenly, everything went upside down and supplies went everywhere. Once more, I was in the water. Then, an Orca tail hit me.

I don’t remember much after that. Somehow, I was put back in the raft. A pod of dolphins swam around the raft. I was very groggy and slipped in and out of consciousness. The dolphins were gathering my things and putting them in the life raft with me. For hours the pod of dolphins kept the Orca and Sharks away. When I woke up the next day, the Sun was shining. I was surrounded by the loose supplies that had scattered when the Orca hit me. Some of my ribs were bruised, if not cracked. It hurt to breathe.

I took an inventory. All the ‘tronics were thrashed, nothing worked. I had a weeks’ worth of supplies. There was a solar still that would produce a small amount of water from seawater and the Sun. That’s when I noticed I was moving. A Dolphin was pulling the tow rope. After a while, the Dolphin tired, and another took its place. The Dolphins would rest every few hours. This went on for a day and a half, then I spied an island to which I seemed to be taken.

When I was brought into the lagoon, the dolphins made a big ruckus and a pretty young woman of about 30 appeared. She made some squeaks to the Dolphins and the Dolphin squeaked back. She did not seem happy.

I stood up, and she said, “Hello, I’m Vicky. Are you badly hurt?”

“No, couple bruised ribs.” I said, “I’m Glenn. Your friends brought me here.”

“They said a gang of mean Orca attacked you.” Vicky said, “They had to scare them off. It sounds like they were playing with you before they were going to eat you. Sometimes the Orca gangs are worse than the sharks.”

“Is there a way off the island,” I said?

“Well, yes, but it takes eight more weeks,” Vicky said, “I’m marooned here by myself for twelve weeks with my Pod of Dolphins. It’s a challenge of sorts if I can prove that I can survive with only what my dolphins bring me. I’m trying to win a contract to do month-long isolated get aways at $10,000 a person. With up to ten people. If I call in tomorrow and say you want to be rescued, they will send a ship. That will end this application this season. I will have to wait until next season, and somebody else could try to compete with me for a different type of experience. Say that you will stay marooned with me for the rest of the eight weeks when I call in in the morning.”

I said, “I don’t know what to think. You’re cute and all but eight weeks marooned on an island. There is the insurance claim for the boat, and what am I going to eat?”

“You can have the insurance filled out over the radio. The Dolphins will bring us food from the sea. What do you like? You can be like one of my clients. I’ll care for you. Would you mind staying with me? Don’t ruin the test, please. This is my one big shot. I don’t have anything else to offer,” Vicky said.

“Let me see. A good evening meal and a decent night's sleep, and I’ll give you an answer in the morning,” I said.

Vicky said, “What would you like for dinner from the Sea?”

I said, “Mahi Mahi.”

I wanted to see just how smart these Dolphins were. Would I get just fish, or would it be Mahi? It seemed to be awfully convenient.

Vicky went to the lagoon, and in a few minutes, one of the Dolphins came to her. She and it had a short exchange. Then she came back to me.

Vicky said, “You might want to come and watch this.”

She showed me a trail that snaked back and forth up the side of a rocky rise to a higher terrace. The company had put in a nice, finished patio for ten people to sit comfortably. There was a dumb waiter trolly that ran from the base of the trail where the main site was at, to the higher terrace. From the point I could see a good area of the ocean. Vicky pointed out a sea pen below me. After about forty minutes, the three Dolphins were off the point, swimming erratically toward the pen. Slowly they made their way to the stone enclosure. When suddenly, a Mahi Mahi made a death-defying leap into the pen. The Dolphins swam around and jumped into the air making squeals of delight.

Vicky said, “There is your dinner.”

“Impressive,” I said.

Vicky said, “I want a pod of ten. One dolphin for each client. I need to show that I can provide for each customer.”

“What if I had asked for shark fin soup,” I said?

Vicky said, “There are things not on the menu. Things I will not gather for a meal, sorry. Things like turtle soup. Calamari is harder. Lobster is pretty easy to do. Most fish are good. Bluefin tuna every once and a while, things like that. I need to show I can provide a luxury or two as a surprise.

I’ve just set up one of the client’s luxury tents, with an octo-mega-bed. I took pictures to do a layout for a brochure. I have solar power, computers to process high-def video, many kinds of cameras and drones to do promotional videos with, but little else. There is no internet.”

I said, “I’m not much of a tech man. You seem to have a nice set up here do you own the island?”

“No, this is an island that the corporation owns. They want to make an isolated resort, that offers luxury in a remote location. They are taking ideas and trying them out. They are going to fully fund five projects for two years in the next few months,” Vicky said. “They have several islands they might be interested in setting up something. To be funded for a three-month trial was a shot at big money to fund my own dolphin research.”

Vicky made her way to the sea pen below the point. I followed her. The path seemed solid and well warn.

Vicky said, “It was a change in thinking that allowed me to really communicate with the dolphin pod. Then the decision to change the environment to a fuller, richer one, with better subject matter, has really paid off.”

I said, “Are you the only one who can talk to the Dolphins?”

“Yes,” said Vicky, “But what I have learned I can teach to anyone. It was a trick in the way the dolphins think. I changed from the concept of I, and it opened a whole new pathway. Dolphins think in terms of the pod. Never I, you must do we, somehow, they know what they are going to do. They can read each other’s minds. They were going to teach me how to pod think, but I was not a pod. They said it took at least two to be a pod and learn to pod think. So, I’m afraid here you are. When I found out that they told the Orca to smash your boat, I did not know what to say. I had no idea that they could communicate to the Orca. You must believe me when I say I did not know they would do such a thing. It was their idea, their choice.”

I looked at a pair of dolphins that frolicked in the surf. I wondered what it would be like to be smart in a body with no hands. What else were they plotting?

Dinner was elegant. At the main site the company had a robo-chef that knew and could cook thousands of recipes. She picked Smothered Sonoran Style fish. Grilled in butter and lime, the mahi was served in a mild enchilada smoked chipotle chili sauce. The preparation of the fish was delicious. The company also had a full computer bar that would make any drink perfectly.

Vicky said, “The company is experimenting with a solar refrigeration unit for the storing of luxury food in remote locations. We have a full larder.”

Later we watched the sunset from the terrace, the highest point on the island. Just as the last part of the disk of the Sun slipped behind the horizon of the open sea, the last gasp of Sun light flashed green.

The octo-mega-bed was fantastic. A piece of canvas held in suspension by eight sets of five adjustable fingers. When you laid on it, the computer adjusted the fingers so that your body was perfectly supported. A soft mattress added just the right amount of padding. It was like sleeping in a nest on a cloud.

In the morning, there was a fruit basket on the table in the tent. It was huge and had: three types of bananas, three types of grapes, guava, mango, cantaloupe, honey dew, strawberries, ruby grapefruit and orange sections. The large bowl stayed cool somehow. When I finally stepped outside the tent Vicky greeted me with a digital form to sign stating I could not hold the company responsible for any accidents.

“Glenn sign this, pretty please with sugar on top.”

What could I do? I signed.

Around mid-morning Vicky took me to the lagoon. When we got in the water the dolphins swam around us. They kept blasting us with their sonar. It was tickling my spine. Suddenly I was aware of five of the creatures in the water near me. I could feel them as they moved. It was like a radio of some sort. The dolphins pushed Vicky and I close together back-to-back. There was a mighty blast of the groups sonar and I felt Vicky’s mind. Then it was over.

Vicky said, “They say we must learn to do this on our own. They can only show us how to do this. It is up to us to maintain the link once it is open to us.”

Each time we swam with the Pod, the link became easier and easier and could be done longer. Soon it was like a dance you could tell what the group was going to do. It took a lot of concentration and was not easy to maintain.

One afternoon we were swimming with the pod, and they made a sound I had never heard before. It opened a part of me to Vicky that was primal. Our bodies were tuned to each other. Each touch brought out intense feedback that reinforced our desires. I was being shown the way to release our bodies maximum pleasure. Vicky was linked to me in the same way. Each of our caresses was guided by the common mind. In the water we joined in a union that exploded in an intensity that left us both gasping. I had never felt such passion. It felt so satisfying and the experience left me in a delightful mood that lingered all evening long.

The days melted together. We enjoyed each other many times connected through the common mind. Each encounter was so satisfying. It echoed contentment for hours. Each time I tried to use the common mind out of the water, it did not work. It had something to do with the dolphin’s sonar.

Then it was over. We were on a small boat being taken back to the company’s main complex on Key West. I watched as we cut through the clear blue water. The dolphin pod was riding the pressure wave of our boat. Vicky talked to a man on the radio for a time then came next to me.

Vicky said, “It was you. Jack Durrington said they thought that my dolphin pod would never be able to provide for a person’s requests, but your presents proved the concept sound. They will fund me for a season. Also, the insurance company replaced your boat it is at their pier waiting for you.”

The next day I spent getting supplies and packing my vessel. In the afternoon Vicky came to see me.

“Glenn, they want me to do a presentation at corporate in Miami,” she said, “I guess this is good-bye.”

We hugged and I kissed her. She had a troubled look on her face as she turned and walked away. We email each other and talk of hooking up again, but she is always busy, or I’m on the other side of the Caribbean. I have never been able to reconnect to a pod of dolphins again. Vicky has though. She says it is not like our union. The pod asks about me. They don’t understand why we would separate.