The Willies | Page 8

an hour just to decide
which bathing suit to wear. In the end, she picked the lime green one
with the tie-up top and the little rectangle of a skirt for a bottom.
Though she felt good about the weight she lost for the wedding and
was nicely tanned, she still tied a loose white shirt over her top out of
modesty. Roger wouldn't be going in the water, so he wore his belted
blue shorts, the only ones he owned, with a lapelled yellow shirt and
the fishing hat Connie thought looked silly.
Today was a big day for her, and they both enjoyed her excitement
about it. This was, after all, part of their honeymoon plans.
At the door, Connie spun around and ran back to her suitcase. It 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