We enjoy a pool because we are free to leave, the same can be said of our homes, a park or any place for that matter. Can we find a way to love these animals, to learn from them, to communicate and give them their liberty too?
The aquarium must be to the dolphins what a field of simple grass is to us. Sure, we could live there, even play there and laugh... but what of our right to travel and explore, our right to be free? Isn't there something in every animal that yearns for its proper natural environment, for that rich experience of colours, textures, movement and possibilities?
The aquarium fish were everything Tara had hoped they would be, but the shoal of people moving at their set pace in their set path bothered her. She wanted to stop for a long time for some tanks, run back to see others she hankered for another glimpse of or race on to the turtles. She wanted to cut across the aisle when something caught her eye and try to see the crab's claws up close. How magical, she thought, to be here at midnight. And that is when her most stupid and brilliant idea yet was born. She could fit a sleeping back into her pack next time she came and hide out in the bathrooms, now how hard could that be?
In water more blue than any ocean the dolphin leaps high into the sultry air of mid August. From his shiny grey topside and whiter under belly fly water droplets, cascading down, bejewelled in the light. His body arcs and tail flips and down her goes with a splash. The audience claps and the trainer continues her dialogue. Under the water the dolphin turns sharply to avoid the sides of the tank. The below ground watchers gasp and soak in the information about this animal, how he was rescued and restored. They feel good, almost as if they rescued him themselves. He quickly returns to the surface for fish, open mouthed for more "ooohs" and "ahhhs." He clicks in the way dolphins do, but these fish throwing bipeds don't understand. He wants to know where the rest of the ocean went, where his family went, how he can get there. If only one of these nice folks would point the way he'd say a fond farewell and go.
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