The Medallion

Nilla: Through the Lens

Seeing the world through the lens of a camera was something I loved, and photographing underwater was a unique new experience that I was growing to love. My absolute favorite pictures were the ones where I'd shoot up towards the sun while objects would float passed. I spent much of my free time on the beach on in the water watching the sea life do sea things.

Seeing dolphin pods swimming far out in the open water was nothing out of the ordinary, but coming across a single dolphin definitely was. I was doing my usual routine when I saw him. He was trapped in something just under the water and struggling, desperate to get out. It took me a moment to recognize the shape, mostly out of disbelief. I've never been so close to an actual dolphin, at least, not in the wild.

Once I realized what I was looking at, I swam over. Cautiously, I reached out to pet him. I thought maybe a gentle touch would calm him. As I approached, I started to get afraid that maybe he wasn't getting enough air. I always kept a folded-up pocket knife strapped to my ankle, especially while diving. You never know when something like that will come in handy and help you out of a sticky situation.

I took a deep breath and swam down hoping to find what was trapping the creature. It was difficult to see though the silt he kicked up, but I eventually found the problem. I grabbed a ribbon-like substance that was just under his tailfin. It didn't feel like part of a fishing net or anything like that, more like seaweed, but I'd never known seaweed to wrap around something that much. It almost seemed to be wrapping tighter and pulling the creature further down.

I followed him down while cutting as quickly as I could trying my best not to hurt the animal. There was also that pesky need for me to breathe. He might be able to hold his breath for hours, but my time was coming to an end. I was afraid that if I went up for another breath, he'd get pulled so far away that I couldn't reach him.

The tether snapped. The dolphin shot up to the surface dragging me behind him and sending my camera off in its own direction.

On the surface, we both took a few deep breaths. The poor thing seemed so tired. I definitely was. I ran my hand across his back.

"How did you get yourself into such a mess?" I said to him.

I looked into one of his large eyes. They seemed to hold the intensity of a wisdom that far exceeded my own, perhaps all of humanity.

"Hold still, now. I'm going to cut these last few pieces off of you."

He bobbed in the water while I removed the last traces of the strange seaweed. Once freed of all the ties, he quickly flapped his tail and dove underwater with surprising speed.

"Well, you're welcome," she shouted out. "Now where did that camera run off to? Oh man, this sucks. I need to stop losing things."

I started to go down for the camera, but it came up to me instead, in the mouth of the dolphin.

"Thank-you." I took the camera from him.

He splashed his head up and down in a 'yes' motion and made a few clicky dolphin noises.

"What were you doing in such a mess anyway?" I laughed, "as if you could actually tell me." I gave him a little pat on his nose.

He splashed around again. It was as if he understood me and was trying to answer. Maybe if he understood me, then I could understand him if I really concentrated. I chuckled at the thought. The idea of being able to understand a dolphin just seemed so absurd.

"Stay out of trouble, dolphin," I called out as I swam away.

I heard him click again before he swam off in his own direction.