This will be my last guest blogger from Carteret County, the grand finale so to say. A really great story! I have so enjoyed working with these young people. Every submission I received was really good. Again, I say, please do not be discouraged if your submission was not chosen. Some were just a bit too graphic for my taste.
Chris Speciale
Senior
Croatan High School
Two Dolphins
Two dolphins twirled and danced together in the wide, spacious seas. As two
inhabitants of the waters, they would know that the seas hold millions of tales and stories
of passing fishermen and passing warships and passing dump freights. The two dolphins
never really thought much of the passersby, but spent time with them whenever they
could-the fishermen especially enjoyed the company. As the two dolphins danced, one
would sooner or later spy a small boat hanging like a cloud above them. While they
acknowledged it, they simply continued their dance before they decided to go meet the
strangers.
Upon the cloud lay two humans, one was a peasant, the other a princess. The peasant
was given the order by the king of England to sail the princess safely to America, and he
was doing a great job of it… that was until their ship sunk. The captain and the crew of it
was lost to the bottom of the sea, somewhere miles behind the two dolphins, deep within
the abyss. The peasant, luckily, was quick on his feet and took the princess and himself
aboard the small boat, where they now were. Unfortunately, the ship sank three days ago,
and since then, neither of the two had eaten anything, and they had just gulped down their
last drops of freshwater. Plus the princess was getting cold.
“I have three cherries in my pocket,” the peasant said to the princess. The peasant
couldn’t be more than forty years old, but his voice still sounded young and clear, and
was projected with a healing comforting tone. “You will eat when I say so–I don’t know
how far from land we are just yet.”
The princess sat curled up in a ball on the seat of the small boat. “I am starving! I
must eat!” She yelled, with a voice similar to the peasant’s, only lighter and more
feminine and smooth.
The peasant agreed, but ignored her. She could live a while longer… in fact she had
to-that was his job. He looked out to the sky in the direction they were coming from and
observed large gray clouds. Those clouds weren’t there earlier. “There’s a storm coming.”
“What do you propose we do about it?” The princess nagged.
Frankly, the peasant thought the only thing to do was let it pass and pray it doesn’t
sink their tiny boat. But the chances of that looked deathly unlikely and gave the peasant
a sickening feeling at the end of his gizzard.
“My job is to protect you until you get to America,” the peasant answered.
The princess hugged herself and started to shiver. “I wish I was like one of those
dolphins,” she said randomly.
“What dolphins?” The peasant asked, confused.
“Look below us,” the princess suggested. Apparently, while the peasant had his eye
on the storm, he had become too distracted to notice the two dancing dolphins swimming
beneath their boat. “I’d like to be like one of those dolphins too.” He spoke aloud.
Then he reconsidered his thought. “I wonder if I can catch one and we can eat it.”
The princess rolled her eyes to him, “Smart, man, real smart. How will you cook it?
You’re not gonna burn this boat to make a fire. And even if we had a fire, I wouldn’t
allow you to do such a killing anyway.”
The peasant looked down in regret for such a stupid thought, and cursed himself. She
was right–about the first thing she said, at least. He couldn’t understand the last thing she
said. “Why wouldn’t you allow me to?”
The princess groaned in annoyance. “Just look at those creatures. Would you really
destroy such a beautiful, joyous love such as theirs?”
The peasant shook his head, “I suppose not.”
“You wouldn?t because I wouldn’t let you.”
“Even if you were starving and we could supply fire?”
“Never under any circumstances!”
The peasant clicked his tongue inside his mouth. “Weird.”
“Heartless!” She insulted back.
Let’s hope I don’t have to prove you wrong, there, the peasant thought, worried about
the oncoming storm.
Hours passed, and the two people sat silent for most of the time, only speaking when
they had to on matters that pertained to getting the princess to land. As the hours passed,
the sunset, and the storm came closer, and the winds picked up, and the waves grew
larger, and the whole world became thrice more violent than it was only hours ago. The
world became a battlefield.
The peasant had fed the princess his three cherries. She told him they tasted like mud.
The peasant apologized, but they couldn’t have been too bad, else the princess would
have spit the cherries back out.
The peasant also had to resort to taking off his shirt and let the princess cover herself
with it. But it didn’t seem to help much. As the world fell darker, warmth bled from the
princess like a wound over her entire body. She was shivering everywhere, and the
peasant felt helpless.
The ends of the storm were directly above them now. The storm started with a
downpour of rain, then that was followed by the crashing of waves as the ocean became a
gallery of rapids.
The princess was soaked, and both her arms were stretched to both ends of the boat
with her hands clinging to the edges like they were her diamonds.
Meanwhile the peasant was doing his best to sit or stand higher than the princess at all
times. He couldn’t predict when the first lightning may strike… its approach is always all
too silent.
“Don’t worry,” the peasant assured the princess. “You’re going to make it to
America.”
The princess didn’t shake her head or nod… she simply shut her eyes and prayed to
herself, holding on to the boat, hoping it won?t flip over and drown her.
Then the peasant could see a large wave building a few dozen yards behind them.
“Hang on, princess,” he warned.
It was as if God’s fist had just punched the ocean.
The wave slammed down onto the surface of the water, and waves came rushing
forward. Half of the water dug underneath the boat, while the other half splashed up and
jumped into and over the boat–altogether pushing it forward who knows how fast!
Then came the thunder. A magnificent clap of thunder broke through the clouds and
filled the skies!
That was when the princess tried to speak to the peasant, but he could not understand.
“I can’t hear you over the thunder!” He screamed. Then the revelation occurred…
Thunder! While the thought that he had just heard thunder was delightful, it was at the
same time terrifying! The peasant was delighted that no lightning had struck him… but
what was terrifying was the question why? Unless there was another poor ship below this
storm that stood higher than they were on this ocean of chaos, it could only mean one
other thing…
“Land!” The princess’s voice was heard at last!
The peasant turned around to see a lighthouse and shadows of trees and silhouettes of
majestic buildings. They were almost home!
Just a little further!
And then came another unexpected punch to the ocean by God Almighty! The world
shook around them and the peasant was dizzy. He could not look at the land and wait to
arrive; he must keep his eye on the princess. She was still in the boat–thank goodness!
She was frozen and soaked, but she was still alive and on board.
And no one heard it coming, and nobody saw it until it came, and the peasant didn’t
feel it until it touched him, and in less than one second, a branch of blue lightning
descended from the black clouds and scorched the peasant.
And the peasant could just hear the gods toying and taunting him from above. They
were saying, “Let’s see how long this monkey can burn.”
The peasant was willing to accept that challenge.
After the strike came, the princess was blinded for a while, and then noticed how
warm the peasant was. With the strength she still had, she crawled on the bottom of the
boat for two feet until she reached the peasant and she sat up again, and she held on to the
peasant’s body, and she began to warm up. The feeling was miraculous!
Although to the peasant, the feeling was dreadful. “Don’t worry,” he forced himself to
speak through burnt lips, “You’re going to make it to America.” And my supply of heat for
you will probably keep you warm until you reach land. I’m going to die tonight, the
peasant knew, but it will save the princess. She might have died if she had to take any
more cold.
“Let’s see how long he burns,” the gods laughed in his face. The peasant accepted
them–this was his punishment for all those sins he’s committed in his life. Let them
punish me. They can’t stop me from protecting the princess.
The two were like that for a long time. No more lightning struck the boat, and no
more thunder was heard. And the rain calmed a little, and the waves had grown smaller.
Hours passed.
The princess did not realize the peasant was dead when he was. She only took
advantage of the heat that he gave off. The eye of the storm was directly above them
now, and the small boat finally reached shore.
The princess climbed out of the boat, shaking and starving, but relieved to touch the
sand again, and relieved to feel the ground once again. When the peasant did not follow,
the princess actually ran back into the boat to tell him the good news! But then she saw
that the peasant was indeed dead.
For a few seconds, the princess seemed to imitate the peasant’s state. She was
breathless… shocked at the unbelievable scene before her. But she inhaled a huge breath
of air, and then knelt down in the boat in front of the peasant and she wept at his feet.
And she wept as the rest of the storm passed by… the clouds were dissolved, empty
of rain and exhausted of all the lightning they had held.
Hours passed, and the princess wept.
Suddenly, she heard the call of two dolphins behind her. She turned around to see the
fins of the sea mammals singing a mournful eulogy for the brave peasant, who sacrificed
his worthless life for the glorious one the princess was bestowed by her king father to her.
Then the princess laid the peasant down in the small boat, and she folded his hands
over his chest, and she gently closed his eyes with her fingertips. Then she stepped out
onto shore…and she pushed the small boat-now an open coffin-out into the wide, endless
blue ocean.
The princess stood at the edge of the beach with the water washing her feet every
minute, watching the small boat drift slowly away from her. Then, as if they wanted to
carry it with them, the two dolphins swam on either sides of the boat underneath it. The
princess listened to the crying dolphins and watched until the boat was completely out of
sight, and the mourning of the two dolphins was nothing more than a faint echo.
But the words of the peasant continued to echo even louder. “Don’t worry. You’re
going to make it to America.”
And so she did, just as the peasant had promised. And to it, the princess made a
promise of her own.
“You will not have died in vain, my friend.” She swore, and shut her eyes to see
infinite darkness ahead of her.
