The Storm of Elements

We Wreck the Penguin Exhibit

The Atlanta Aquarium is even bigger in person. 

Large and silver, the front part being a unique rhombus-like shape with the blue G with the fish tail logo on the corner. The rest of the facility has large but more flat buildings in the back connected to it. There's other cool shapes and artwork on the outside as you walk up to the ticket booth. 

Obsidian parks in this huge parking garage, then we get out and walk over. I can't help but be a little jittery as we wait in line for tickets. This place seems so cool, and I'm pretty excited to see the whale sharks and manta rays. 

The line takes forever, though. At least, it feels that way. 

Jake smiles and takes my hand. "I'm guessing you're excited." 

"How can you tell?" 

"Partly because you're tapping your feet impatiently; and partly because you keep looking into the windows to see if you can spot the animals yet." 

"Sorry." I force myself to stop. "I've just never been here before. And I've wanted to since I was, like, six years old." 

"I still can't get over how you're the only one who's lived in Atlanta, at least on the outskirts, but you haven't been here." 

"We weren't exactly the richest people in the world. Plus my dad just couldn't conceive why he needed to take his daughter to a cool place like this. Or any cool place. He needed the money to solely spend on getting drunk." 

Jake purses his lips but says nothing. 

We finally reach the front of the line and Obsidian buys our tickets. We then head inside through glass doors, and inside, I immediately fall in love. 

There are glass tanks full of fish, coral, sharks, sting rays; pretty much everything you can imagine. Each room has a bluish-green hue from the water (and probably also from LED lights for a dramatic, mystical touch). Tourists from all over the world mill around, chatting excitedly and taking pictures of the animals and of each other. 

"Whoa," Myria breathes. 

"'Whoa' is right," Alex says. 

We walk around in awe. There's a large tank, about as tall as the walls leading to the vaulted ceilings, full of big fish, manta rays, and even sea turtles. We all hurry over and push past people to see. 

One sea turtle swims gracefully around, its flippers slowly but powerfully flowing up and down. It glides past all the fish but pretty much ignores the other turtles. I watch in amazement as it glides very close to where I'm standing, so close to my face it looks like it should at least touch the glass. But it doesn't. I put my palm against the glass and it seems to rub against it as it passes by. 

 "I love turtles," Lenae says, as if reading my mind (which she probably was). 

"They're so peaceful," Myria says. 

"That reminds me of a turtle joke," Alex says. 

"Of course it does," Peter says. 

"What do you call a party of turtles? A shellebration!" 

"This one doesn't look like it's shellebrating," Peter observes. "In fact, it looks kind of depressed." 

"No," I say, watching it glide gracefully away, "more like.......calm." 

"Come on, guys, let's go and see all the other animals here," Myria says. "We can't spend all day just with the turtles." 

"That would be shellarious," Alex says.