ISLANDS

I looked out over the half-moon beach, the gemlike little cove nearly enclosed by a rocky arm of the isolated cay. “It’s good to remember there are places like this in the neighborhood.” Just putting a stretch of water between me and the dark mass of the island had lifted a weight off me.

“I like to think I’m the only one who comes here. You’re the first person I’ve brought.” He rolled over on his side, supporting his head on one arm, gaze traveling leisurely from my feet to my face.

He smiled and I smiled back, almost as if we could replay that first day at the beach. He reached over to run a finger along the top of my hand. The light touch sent a shiver down my spine.

I sat up, hugging my knees.

“You’ve got to find out, you know.”

“Find out what?”

“About us. Whether you want to run away or to.” His eyes were the color of the bottomless “blue holes” that lured divers ever deeper.

He sat up and started to touch my arm, then paused. “They came!” He jumped to his feet, pulling me up.

“Who?”

“My friends.” He pointed at the cove. A dark shape surged and broke the surface. Shiny gray-blue back. Curved dorsal fin. It slid under again, followed by the slap of a flat crescent tail.

“A dolphin!” I ran down to the water’s edge.

“I was hoping they’d show. I was following them the day I found the hidden entrance to the cove here.”

“Will he come back?” I waded into the silky water.

Two arched backs broke the surface a few feet out. Another followed. One more. A sleek shape glided closer. The long, gleaming body flew out of the water, arched, and crashed down, tail slapping to spray me. He circled back and bobbed his head, grinning, uttering high squeaks.

“Do you think I could touch him?”

Vic nodded at the dolphin eyeing us with an impossibly friendly look. “Go ahead and try.”

I talked to the creature, making soothing noises as I slid into the water and floated toward him. He bobbed his head, moving slightly away. I held out a hand and paddled forward. “Come on, I won’t hurt you.”

He seemed to grin wider and squealed, as if laughing at my absurd reassurance. He edged back, waiting. Teasing me?

I laughed and eased toward him. He turned his head, the dark, liquid eye gleaming with awareness. He chirped and bobbed his head.

As the alien gaze held mine, inviting recognition, I remembered John’s dream to be reborn in the sea. Holding my breath, I reached out for the glistening animal, and the dolphin let me touch him. A strangeness stirred inside me. Joy welling, rippling up and outward, boundless as the sea….

The dolphin exploded in a high-pitched squeal, leaping into the air, splashing under. The others were headed out toward the cut, and he surged up and after them. A last glimpse of a gleaming fin, sleek fleeting grace.

I swam back to the shallows, the link with the dolphin alive in me. Scooping up a handful of water, I tossed it to the sun, dazzles spattering down. I laughed, spinning in a circle of kaleidoscope colors—blue sky, silver waves, green leaves, gold sand.