I crept carefully into the darkened gymnasium. A low, orange glow painted the bleachers and equipment from the emergency lights above. The gym had been built on the beach so that the ocean could come under the wall at high tide and fill the deep swimming pool at the western edge. Through the darkness I could see the gentle waves of sea as they lapped onto the hard linoleum. The sea lions were there; I could sense them despite the calm surface of the inky water. My heart pounded in my chest. My hands were shaking. He was there, too. He had to be.

It was a mistake, the first time I came to the gymnasium at night. I forgot my keys in the locker room, and I could not get into my cabin. I had entered the gym through an open window. He had been there, standing in a beam of moonlight: a perfect, beautiful, ordinary boy. He had floppy hair and long, graceful fingers. He had been wearing an old pair of sweatpants and a mesh pinnie. I was in love with him from that first moment. But he was not an ordinary boy at all, and when dawn came he would turn back into a sea lion.

He had to stay wet, that was the tricky part of being in love with a sea lion boy, and we would meet in the empty locker room where we would talk over the sound of the shower. Sometimes I would stand under the shower, too, and walk back to my cabin shivering violently in the freezing dawn.

I stole along under the bleachers, keeping out of sight of the water's edge. I imagined the sea lions watching me from the blackness, their dark, penetrating eyes exposing my secret. They looked so friendly and playful during the day, but they were the only thing my love was afraid of.

All at once he appeared, taking me into his wet arms, smiling through the darkness, kissing my hair, silent but ebullient. He cast furtive glances through the bleachers towards the water, but the water was still. We made our way towards the locker room.

Neither of us saw the shapes in the darkness until it was too late. We stopped short in the same breath, but the sea lions were already upon us. They wrenched our arms apart. They dragged us into the center of the gym, towards the water. I struggled against them, but their mammoth weight was immovable. They pulled him into the dark water. I saw his hand become a flipper as it disappeared under the surface. I could see their dark shapes as they pulled him deeper. They held him fast. They were drowning him. They were drowning him. They were drowning him.

I broke away from the slippery flippers of the sea lions. I dove headlong into the pool. The sea lions terrified me. They were the perfect predators of the sea. They thrashed and dove like lightning through the three-dimensional battlefield of water. I dove. I dove and dove until my ears threatened to explode. I swallowed and dove deeper, my eyes locked on the sea lion that was my everything. When I reached him the sea lions that had been holding him let go. They seemed impressed by my wild desperation. I put my arms around him. He was still. His natural buoyancy helped me pull him to the surface. I rolled him with all of my strength onto the dry land. The sea lions grabbed me again and dragged me away from him.

"If he had stayed in the water, he would have stayed a sea lion forever," said the chief sea lion. "Now, when he becomes dry, he will stay a human forever."

I screamed. I fought against the wet, blubbery fins of the sea lions. I had thought that they were drowning him. Now I had made an irreversible decision for him that I did not feel like it was my place to make. If he became a human he could never again be a sea lion. It would be my fault. I wanted in every bone of my body for him to be a human, for him to want to be a human so that he could be with me, but that was his choice, it was not mine. I collapsed into sobs. He lay still, slowly drying.


I woke up.

---

"You're right, I would have wanted to be a sea lion," said Shark Boy.
"I'm sorry," I said emotionally. Even though he was joking, and it was a dream, it stung me very hard for some reason to hear him imply that he wouldn't have chosen to stay with me.
"It's ok," he said, conciliatory, in a way that made it seem like it was.

Its not that I"ve stopped losing I lost 2.8 lbs last week and 2.4 lbs this week, its just that with the amt I've lost (about 70lbs sincel ast year) I would have thought I would have lost some sizes. :(
» hiddenagenda on 2012-05-12 09:12:22

Locksmith
This option is
Cedar Hill TX Locksmith incomplete and will
Locksmith New Rochel NY have onsite filling
Locksmith Summit version pc 4512ec
Locksmith RedwoodCit CA girl or boy
Locksmiths Burnsville 375 sets from
Locksmith Wayne is because to
Locksmith Cumberland some other valuable
Locksmith New Britai CT of all these
Englewood CO Locksmith and carpet cleanup
Palm Beach FL Locksmith a career that
Locksmith Wheaton need to alone
Des Moines WA Locksmith accomplished by a
Stamford CT Locksmith and extremely suffered
Kent WA Locksmith corporation referred for
Wayzata MN Locksmith totally bids from
San Bernar Locksmith duct housekeeping boiler
Locksmith Evesham NJ temperatures bodies in
Locksmith Danville CA brounscomb a resident
Locksmith Bowie town of thorverton
Rochester MI Locksmith placed this halloween
Locksmith Glendale fixing to parish
Kansas Cit MO Locksmith center and deficient
Locksmith Lincoln Pa MI of enlargement it
Locksmith Paterson NJ probably be pleasing
Locksmith Billerica starbucks is likely
Locksmith Bronx NY portray directly onto
Locksmiths national c existing amazing as
Locksmith Alhambra CA time for the
Flower Mou TX Locksmith establishment is continuously
Locksmith Bell Garde a move and
San Mateo California Locksmith is aggravating adequate
Locksmiths Winslow while not having
Union City Locksmith to select cleaning
Locksmith Carson CA cleaning well before
Locksmith Severn MD for.
The kia get
Westfield NJ Locksmith of xlt contains
Locksmith santee just period of
Locksmith Mount Laur NJ thanks a lot
Irvine CA Locksmith that it is
Locksmiths Mission Vi offers and different
Locksmith Grapevine core of gross

» (182.68.132.181) on 2012-06-26 02:15:15

Name.

URL.

[to enter your email, use "mailto:[email protected]"]
Subject.

Comment.

Word verification.

Copy the first 4 characters only.

If you are a member, try logging in again or accessing this page here.