Mild Expectations

Chapter 5

'I'm sorry about what happened. I really had no idea.' Alex said when I finally finished telling him what had happened with my parents. 'I can't believe he did that.'

'Well, people do strange things and they can't be trusted.' I said, emotionless. This was the only way that I could hide my feelings.

'Some people can.' Alex said, squeezing my shoulder. I wanted to say that no one can, but I didn't want him to feel bad again.

'Yeah.' I said as we approached the dolphin show, people scattering like ants to find a place in the stadiums. 'Are you okay with sitting at the bottom?' I asked him, seeing that the top half was full and only a few seats remained in the bottom half.

'Yeah. I think it's better with your leg anyway.' He said, still holding my shoulder as I walked towards two empty seats in the bottom row.

I helped guide him to his seat and we sat down as the last of the people started to file in.

'Ladies and gentleman! Welcome to our dolphin show. I hope you have a wonderful experience and I hope you are looking forward to see them as they have been looking forward to seeing you.' The lady in charge said and that earned an applause from everyone as a dolphin swam by, waving to the croud.

'What's happening?' Alex asked from next to me and I told him and he smiled, picturing it in his mind.

As the show went on, I kept telling him what was happening so he could share in the experience.

After a while the lady came back to the microphone to talk to the crowd. 'I want to pick some volunteers to come up and pet the dolphins.' She said and almost all the hands of the kids went up.

I smiled and the lady turned towards us and smiled sympathetically. 'You two can come up here.' She said pointing to us and I was confused and turned to Alex who had his hand up. I smiled and told him the lady was talking to us.

The crowd cheered us on as I lead Alex out of his seat and towards the podium where the lady stood. People gasped at shock to see Alex being blind and me guiding him with crutches but we ignored it.

The lady picked out a few more people to come forward before she took us to the water where the dolphins were.

'Are you two okay?' She asked as Alex and I stood next to the water.

'Yes, we are. Thanks, ma'am.' Alex replied holding my shoulder.

'I'm glad to hear that. Thank you for coming. You deserve this.' She said and walked off. I must say, I honestly hate in when people are just being nice to you when something's wrong with you but she was genuine. As if she has gone through something like this before.

She walked to the water and let one dolphin come towards us and it jumped out of the water with its head and looked at us. The two kids that were standing next to us huddled together around it and a woman who had also been chosen also bent down to touch the dolphin's head.

The lady let the second one come to us as well and he rolled on to his side and flapped his fin in a wave at us.

I smiled and lead Alex closer and told him to bent down. With a struggle I sat down as well and took his hand.

'What are you doing?' He asked, half scared because he couldn't see.

'Just relax.' I said and put his hand on the dolphin's belly. He smiled slightly as he ran his hand up and down on its wet surface.

Suddenly the dolphin moved and Alex jerked his hand away. I laughed as the dolphin sprayed us with water and called to us.

'He wants a kiss.' The lady said and I bent down and kissed him on the nose and he swam backwards, clapping his fins together in gratitude.