The Willies | Page 8

slid easily as she pulled it across the floral print polyester bedspread and onto the floor. She pushed it under the bed, then joined her husband, taking his hand.
~
The rusted jeep bumped off the cracked asphalt road into a gravel parking lot. They'd been driving for a while, and Roger worried that maybe the driver was taking them into the jungle to hack them to pieces with a machete. Connie, unaware of her husband's thoughts, grinned elatedly and squeezed his hand as the sign came into view. Neither of them understood the words on it, but the dolphin cartoon on it told them they'd arrived at the right place.
Dolphins were Connie's hobby, her totem animal, her thing. She wore tiny dolphin earrings and a matching silver ring on her right pinky. Birthdays and Christmases were a cinch for her friends and family -- another fridge magnet, figurine, or stuffed toy -- anything 'dolphin', and they were covered.
And now she was about to swim with a real live dolphin! She ran from the jeep, leaving her husband to pay the driver. The tip he gave the man was more of a bribe to ensure he would come back for them. The moment Roger paid, though, he regretted it: he'd exposed too much cash... Which brought him back to the machete fantasy.
The aquarium attendant sat picking at the last bits of his lunch, a fish he ate from the foil it was cooked in. He flipped through a copy of Movie Insider that a tourist left behind. The latest young teen heartthrob graced the cover. The attendant looked at a picture of the star's clean, white, handsome face, absentmindedly running a hand through the few days' worth of dark growth on his own.
"Excuse me," said Connie. The high pitch of her voice added to the start she gave the attendant, who leapt up, projecting his lunch from his lap. "Do you speak English?" she said, her shining pink lips slowly mouthing each word.
"Yes," he replied, brushing off his trouser legs.
"Oh good," she sighed.
"You are here to swim with the dolphin?"
"Yes she is!" Her husband said as he walked up and put his hand on her shoulder.
The attendant told them the various prices. They could feed the dolphin for the lowest price. But they didn't come all this way for just that. They could touch the dolphin, have their picture taken with it, or -- the show-stopper -- they could swim with the dolphin.
"That's what she's here for. How much for that?" The attendant spoke the price without expression, as if it was obvious that this was the going rate for dolphin time.
The couple looked at each other, aghast. That wasn't the price they'd been quoted. "Honey, I don't have to do this, it's okay," said Connie, though her face betrayed her true feelings.
Her husband briefly contemplated taking her up on the offer, then decided to act the good husband and buy her what she wanted. He pulled a wad of bills from his pocket and counted them out into the attendant's palm.
~
Connie dipped her foot in carefully, but the water proved as inviting as a bath. She turned and waved to her husband, who, watching her through the silver cube, waved back. She looked around. What a perfect day for this, she thought, like something from a calendar: clear blue sky, turquoise water, and, past the chain-link fence that defined the aquarium, palm trees along the shore. The fence extended far out into the water.
The attendant handed her a fish. She dropped it with a shriek, and her hands flapped like manicured pink bats into the air by her head. She laughed, forced herself to pick it up, and took several more steps down the concrete stairs into the water.
A ripple formed in the water ahead of her and parted as the sleek grey body of a dolphin surfaced. Connie's mouth dropped open in awe. Even the attendant couldn't help but be moved by her joy at seeing the creature. To him it was just a fish. He'd certainly seen his share of them before this job, but those were all in fishing nets. They were so rare now, he was surprised there were even any left. This one in the water wasn't from here: just to get one they had to buy it from some American company who said they "made" them.
Connie gingerly held the fish out for the dolphin. It probed the offering with its nose, but pushed it aside with enough force to make Connie drop it in the water.
The attendant checked his watch. Strange, he thought, the dolphin hasn't been fed. Why isn't it hungry?
Connie turned to wave at her husband, mouthing for the camera as she pointed at the dolphin, "I'm-going-to-swim-with-it-now", though the camera could have recorded