Part 8

Part 8 - Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida and The Unicorn Queendom

Finn had swum aimlessly in and around the reefs offshore of Ft. Lauderdale thinking about Caroline. She had become the most important thing in his life, replacing (yes it was true) his mother. His world had become Caroline-centric, the circles of her embracing him from their outer to innermost parts. Yet she was alien to him in many ways. His feelings for her disgusted him less and less, but this was not one of the lesser times. Her treatment of him was idiosyncratic. Damn! Damn, damn, damn. Why had this happened to him? His life had been lined up for royal mediocrity, nothing to pull him to much to the left or right. With the company of his friends and, yes, a comely Lady of the Court to entertain his baser needs. He would have ruled the dolphins for another fifty years.

Years! Even now he was starting to think in human terms. She had polluted him. A reef shark swam nearby, the black pinnacle of its dorsal fin stroking a silent S through the water. 

‘F**k off,’ Finn said.

The shark smiled its razor grin, made a right turn and faded from sight. That had not been very diplomatic of him. Cordial relations with the sharks were part of a long-standing treaty which kept the seas from turning red.

You see? he thought, she has even murdered your civility.

How could Caroline not understand. Could she not see that every cut was deeper than the previous one? That he took them unflinchingly, whilst she wallowed in her self-pity. To ask to dance with him. The crassness of it. Assuming everything went to plan she would be able to swim in the ocean. But his kingdom would be closed to her, all she would see was the merest crack. The deep ocean volcanoes, spewing hungry lava which the ocean killed immediately after its birth; the creatures of the deep trenches, so majestic, yet so awful. And New Atlantis itself, crown jewel of the dolphin kingdom. She could never see it, never bask in the glow of the Court’s adulation. 

Caroline was barren. Her mind was locked by the confines of her condition. Of course in her Unicorn Queendom she was radiant, but it was a fallacy. He understood it, she did not. For so long she had written off her physical self. It was a husk, a medium for supplying the nutrients she needed to get to the next sleep cycle where she could live. But live what? A reality cavorting with magical creatures of her own making. She treated them as individuals but ignored the contradiction of their existence. Especially Simonale! It was closest to being the mirror of Caroline’s external self: complaining, whining, and irritating. 

What would Caroline resplendent be? Would the Unicorn Princess persona replace the voiceless specter that occupied her now? Could he make her understand that they could not really live? For him, the world would be the same place. For her everything would change. And yes, she might touch him in the paper of the ocean, but it would be as the breath of a God on some poor mortal.

His mental alarm buzzed. Anya was drifting into sleep. Now was the prime moment for insertion, her mind slowing and moving down from the layers of consciousness. He forced his Caroline worries aside. Here was crucial occupation. Anya must be routed to Caroline’s Queendom. An easy task; what small girl wouldn’t want to go to a world of unicorns, especially one where her cousin was the ruler. He settled on a sandy spot, slowed his breathing and sent out to Anya’s room. 

He felt Anya’s rhythmic breathing, the pressure of her eyes roaming behind their lids, the still-aware softness of the plush toy grasped to her chest. Carefully he slipped into her mind. It was a dance of sorts. Each movement had to be performed correctly, by both parties. The sleeping mind of a child was the easiest to visit. A slumbering adult dolphin, well versed in the defensive arts and not having allowed the connection, could be a battle. But this insertion was easy: twist this way, turn that, avoid this pitfall (ignite a nightmare), don’t tread on this worry (will I wet the bed tonight?), and…he was inside her dream.

Finn’s unicorn avatar floated in space. This was a novelty. Dolphin children didn’t conceptualize the universe beyond the planet, at least not at the equivalent of Anya’s age. He supposed humans had the advantage of the visual arts. Perhaps Anya, during an exploration into the hotel’s cable TV system, had stumbled upon some star adventure which had piqued her imagination. 

‘Hello.’

The voice came from everywhere. It was not a booming ‘God almighty’ voice, more as if one of his comrades was contacting him.

‘Hello yourself,’ he replied. Where was she? He turned around. Nothing.

A giggle. ‘You’re looking the wrong way.’

Ah, now he understood. It was a classic dolphin game to play with the young, one of the ways they were taught to think of movement in the third plane. Floating above them, a mother would whisper “Where’s Mor?” The pup would search, lazily in the beginning but more frantically as the parent’s apparent disembodiment became more haunting. Finally, when the pup was close to breaking down, the mother would say “Look up,” and the pup’s surprise to find that it was possible to exist above would be imprinted. Humans would probably consider this a form of child abuse.

He looked up. Empty space. 

‘Hmmm,’ he said, ‘this is a strange thing. A voice from the dark but no-one to own it.’

Another giggle. ‘Try again, silly.’ 

He made a play of turning this way and that. Finally, when he judged she had elicited enough entertainment from him, he looked down.

‘Ah ha!’ he said. ’Is this Anya the space creature?’

The form Anya had assumed resembled a cocoon, perhaps containing some vast moth that might devour worlds were it to break from its chrysalis. 

‘Right,’ she said. The cocoon frowned, its unclean circular bands contracting. ‘You’re not supposed to be in here.’

So, she was smart this one. Even untrained she had figured out he was an intruder. That was promising. It pointed towards a level of intelligence beyond her years. Even dolphin pups took several sessions to realize that the odd creatures invading their dreams were their parents.

‘That’s smart of you,’ he said. ‘Actually I’m a guest of sorts. My name is Finn. I’m a friend of your cousin’s.’

The Anya/space-cocoon considered this. ‘OoooooK,’ she said. ‘Why does Caroline have a unicorn as a friend?’

She was making this easy for him. 

‘That’s a smart question,’ he said. ‘Caroline is also a unicorn in her dreams’

She said, ‘Caroline is really a unicorn?’

He had her interest now. It was almost time.

‘In her dreams she is. And I’m allowed to visit her there, like I’m visiting you. Would you like to go to Caroline’s dream? It’s a wonderful Unicorn Queendom and, guess what?’

‘What?’ she said.

He smiled at her. ‘Caroline is a Princess there and rules the whole place.’

The Anya/space-cocoon rotated. Two eyes came into view. They were the color of the setting sun. She smiled back at him. It was the smile of a shark trapping a juicy fish inside a shallow cave. 

‘You’re busted a*****e,’ she said. ‘Caroline’s a moron and lives in a wheelchair.’

’But�"‘

‘Let’s have some fun,’ she said.

Finn tried to back out of the dream. His rump came up against a solid, invisible wall.

‘Going somewhere?’ the creature said, and its tortured landscape split into a grin. Inside the mouth were row upon row of glittering, ragged teeth. She flew at him, mouth agape. 

Finn screamed as the monstrous cavern engulfed him and the light from the stars closed.

**********

Caroline knew something had gone wrong. She had spent enough time in her Queendom to gauge time lapsed in the real world. Finn and Anya should have been here by now. It had been at least two hours since Anya had gone to sleep. She paced around the audience chamber. Simonale followed at her hooves. They had to skitter away when she changed direction.

‘Your Highness, please!’ they said. 

‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Why aren’t they here yet?’

‘I don’t know,’ they said. ‘Perhaps we placed too much trust in Finn. Maybe he’s not capable of this feat.’

‘I don’t believe that,’ she said. Defensive now, she stopped pacing and stared at Simonale. ‘Don’t you trust him?’

Simonale shuffled their feet. ‘It’s not a question of trust. It’s a question of ability.’

Caroline snorted. ‘If he’s not able to do it, who then?’

‘Perhaps Lord Skagen would have been better�"‘

‘No,’ she said, cutting one hoof in the air in front of them. ‘Finn said it would be easy. I believe him.’

Simonale turned their paws over themselves. ‘Then there is a contradiction, since he is not here with your cousin. Either he could not enter her dreamworld, or he did and some…thing is preventing him from transporting here.’

Caroline did not miss the implication. ‘You think Anya doesn’t want to come?’

Simonale shrugged. ‘I am but your humble servant.’ They cocked their head.

‘So? It has never stopped you voicing your opinion before.’

Simonale appeared to be counting their fingers. Finally they said, ‘In my opinion, your cousin’s motives are not as clear as they might seem.’

‘She’s only six,’ Caroline said. ‘She doesn’t have motives.’

‘Oh?’ they said. ‘Have you met your cousin?’

Caroline considered this. It was true that Anya could be divisive, especially to get her own way. This was what they were relying on. Could it be that she had perceived Finn as an enemy? What damage could Anya do to him in her dreams? Caroline thought about her own capabilities. Could she hurt someone here? Kill someone? If she killed someone in her dreams, what happened to that person on the outside? 

‘I have to go after him,’ she said.

Simonale sighed. ‘Yes, I’m afraid that is the most likely course of action.’ They slumped on the floor. ‘Did Finn give you any instruction on how to do it?’

Caroline picked at her hooves. ‘Not really.’

Simonale looked up. ‘When you say “not really”, do you actually mean “no”?’

‘Yes,’ she said.

‘F**k-a-doodle-do,’ Simonale said. They levitated to eye level with Caroline. ‘I suppose I should go with you, for moral support. Even though I don’t want to.’

‘Can you do that?’ she said.

They shrugged. ‘We’ll find out I guess. I’m a part of you remember. Wherever you go, I go. When you’re awake, I’m asleep - and vice versa. As long as you’re still asleep, my consciousness binds to your unconscious.’

She smiled at them. ‘I didn’t realize you were so philosophical.’

They grinned back. ‘Oh yes. Freud was right you see.’

Caroline didn’t completely understand this but passed on the opportunity to have Simonale enlighten her. 

‘We’re wasting time,’ she said. ‘Anya’s only a child, so it shouldn’t be hard to get into her dreams. She’s only two rooms away, so I guess I just need to go, you know, out of body and find her.’

‘How about me?’ they said.

Caroline thought about it. ‘Well, in normal circumstances if I wanted you to come somewhere with me, I’d ask you to climb aboard. So let’s try that.’

Simonale looked like they were going to say something but closed their mouth. Caroling dipped her left shoulder. Simonale floated over and neatly placed themselves at the base of her neck. Their otter paws gripped the cobweb hairs of her mane.

‘Good to go,’ they said.

Caroline launched herself out of the room, the doors springing open to her command. They rose into the azure sky. Up she flew, beyond the range of any flight before. The sky darkened. Simonale gripped her mane.

‘Ow!’ she said.

‘Sorry,’ they mumbled, and the grip relaxed.

As the color faded, she saw only darkness ahead. She supposed that, in the real world, she’d be freezing and dying from lack of air by now. But her breath came naturally, and here she felt only the warmth of Simonale on her back.

They flew into nothing. Below she could see the dream of her Queendom. It was a disc floating in the void. The colors were still vivid and purposeful: forests a radiant emerald, and the ocean a fluxing cobalt. 

‘Where are we?’ Simonale said. Their voice carried perfectly.

‘I think we’re in the world between dreams,’ she said. ‘We need to look for Anya’s dream. It should be close I imagine. At least if distance in the real world is the same here.’

Simonale made a harrumphing sound. Caroline translated this as them not being convinced. She realized she’d been making a running motion. She halted. Looking away from her Queendom she let her eyes adjust to the lightlessness. Off to her right she saw something. A light? An absence of darkness? Waves of grey began to form, they swept towards the not-dark.

‘That way,’ she said. 

‘Indeed?’ Simonale returned.

Their voice lacked much of the confidence Caroline desired. Yet she felt this was the right path. At least it was a path. Flying around in the black wasn’t going to get them anywhere. She angled towards the grey tide and, as they entered it, felt its pull. Something wanted her to go this way. Perhaps it was a sign from Finn? Maybe even inside Anya’s dream he was able to summon her. 

The not-dark grew. As they approached Caroline could see it was a cube of space. Now she understood why it had not been a beacon like her own dream disc. The stars in the cube emitted a minute glow individually, but from a distance merged to make this thin lighthouse. She slowed as they reached the cube’s boundary. The terminator between the two shimmered. It reminded her of seeing different types of liquid soap in a bottle. There was no clear delineation. Some parts of the outside pushed in, whilst in other places the space-cube leaked out. 

‘There,’ she said, pointing at a spot where charcoal-space was sludging out of a house-sized breach.

‘We’re going to die,’ Simonale said. 

‘Jeez, have a bit of faith,’ she said, turning to look at them. 

‘Right,’ they replied, and buried their face in her mane.

She dropped down to the breach, moving around smaller fractals. At its edge, she poked a hoof in experimentally. There was resistance. She pushed harder. Her hoof broke the tension plane and slipped into the star space. The ambient light inside Anya’s dream world made her hoof glow an iridescent pearl. 

‘We’re in,’ she said.

‘I wouldn’t say that yet,’ they replied.

Caroline put her nose down, closed her eyes and willed herself through the boundary. Once she had watched a video of some very silly English people wading through a trench of clogging mud for some sort of competition. This was how they must have felt when they slipped into the quagmire. As her face went through, she shivered. It felt like someone was pulling a cloying bag over her. But, after shoving hard, she slipped through. She wondered if this what birth was like. The rest of her, and (she hoped) Simonale followed. Once the majority of her body was through, she looked behind her and saw the boundary sucked against her hind quarters. A tingling sensation followed its progress, like the edge of a blunt knife being scraped over her skin. She shuddered. A forlorn memory skittered along her mind like a fleeing mouse. She focused and pulled her hind legs through.

‘Well,’ Simonale said, confirming their survival, ‘that was interesting.’

Caroline ignored their sarcasm. She looked ahead, assuming that Anya and Finn were likely to be in the center of this space. She wondered how fast she could move here. Only one way to find out.

‘Hold on,’ she said. She considered the center of the cube; imagined it near…now! 

‘Wait,’ said Simonale. ‘I…whaaaaaa�"‘

Across they plunged, as if she had severed an elastic band attaching them to the middle of the cube. Hurtling through space their speed stunted her mind. Simonale gripped her mane with enough force that she was sure would pull hairs out. There was no wind, but the sense of forward velocity was a combustion in her brain. 

In the distance she could see something approaching. It looked like a giant slug.

‘What - the - hell - is - that?’ Simonale gasped.

I think that’s Anya, she projected.

Oh, that works here? Well that’s easier. She doesn’t look very happy.

Caroline could see that the Anya-thing was wriggling, and not in a tickle-time type of way. This was more like the movement of someone who had eaten something particularly unwholesome. 

You don’t think Finn’s in there, do you? Simonale said.

I think that’s exactly where he is, she replied.

Looks like he’s given her indigestion, they remarked.

She slowed their approach. Simonale’s grip on her mane relaxed. Caroline saw that Anya was a giant chrysalis covered with tepid, brown ridges. The insides of the cocoon bulged and flexed. Caroline imagined how her aunt would speak if she were here. Aunt Anita could put a stop to unruly behavior like a samurai slicing through an exposed neck. Caroline doubted she had her aunt’s skill, but it was worth a shot. She drew up within a few yards of the pulsating form and let loose with her best effort.

‘Anya Krusch, you stop that right now!’

The writhing inside the creature stopped.

Caroline, is that you? Finn’s projection was muted.

Happiness defiled her heart. Yes, it’s me. What happened?

‘Ahem,’ said a voice.

Caroline looked up. Twin Mars regarded her. 

‘I don’t know who you are,’ Anya said, ‘but you’re not having him. He’s mine.’

Caroline considered the situation. She needed Finn back. No, that wasn’t quite right. She wanted him back. But she needed Anya’s help. Did that make Finn expendable? Would she make that trade? She suspected that the curative plan didn’t actually need him, although his powers would likely be more than the average dolphin. What was more important here, her want for Finn, or her need for Anya? If she could persuade Anya and save Finn then it was a win-win.

She said, ‘Anya it’s me, Caroline.’

This brought the creature to a stop. It smirked. 

Anya said, ‘He said you’d come. Of course, he’d say anything at the moment.’

I thought you said she was only six, Simonale sent. 

‘I heard that!’ Anya screeched. 

Caroline had to bring order here. This situation was out of control. Lord Skagen was massing the power of the dolphins to cure her. And here was Anya, petulant and stubborn, blocking the vital path. She tried a different approach.

‘Anya what’s wrong? Finn is my friend, why are you torturing him?’ She wasn’t sure that Anya understood what torture was. But the girl had incinerated enough summer insects to start her own avant-garde restaurant. She had the basic concept.

‘Him?’ 

Caroline heard the contempt in Anya’s voice. It was almost as if she was referring to…

Caroline had an idea. No, call it an intuition. Sparking out of her own subconscious it caught the light of day and flared. It stank this intuition, smelled like a hideous charcoaled banana. Dare she peel it, or should she stamp on it? Squash the stench or rip it open - expose it to Anya, let her inhale the putrid thought. What effect on her young brain? What effect on her dream-self? What peril to Finn? 

She had no choice.

‘Anya,’ she said, ‘did Finn do something wrong? Did he…touch you?’

The effect on Anya was immediate. The Anya-thing jerked back, as if touched with an electric prod. 

What are you doing? Finn said.

Just stop struggling and wait, Caroline replied. I’ll have you out of her ASAP.

ASAP? This isn’t a bloody company meeting. She’s crushing me in here!

Caroline sighed. Just hold on.

Caroline slid closer to Anya. ‘Did he do something you didn’t like?’

’N…no,’ Anya said. 

Caroline pressed. ‘It’s ok, you can tell me. You’ve told me lots of things over the years.’ This was Anya’s secret. She confided in Caroline. Caroline was the perfect listener; she never interrupted, never asked questions, never objected. Anya treated her like a favored toy. Talking, talking, always talking; nattering about the ninety nine percent of things that mattered only to her. But that one percent, that was where Anya lived and died. It was the tinder of her loaded life. Put a spark to it and, whomp! Anya’s perception of reality would incinerate. Leaving what? A six-year old girl ingesting the remains of a rotten life. 

The Anya-thing began to cry. Blobs of crimson goo spun out from her eyes. They wobbled yet, mimicking their real-space siblings, kept cohesion as they larvaed away from their host. The crinkled mouth worked an imitation of ‘Oh Oh Oh’ sounds. 

‘Anya,’ Caroline said, ‘won’t you let Finn out. Then we can all talk. We have something really important to tell you. There’s something you need to do; big girl stuff. You’re going to be a heroine, like a Disney princess.’

‘R…Really?’ said Anya. ‘A princess heroine, like Pipi?’

‘Yes,’ Caroline replied , not wanting to get into an argument over who did, and did not, constitute a princess of the line of Walt. ‘And what was Pipi’s superpower?’

Anya thought about this. ‘She was strong?’

‘Yeah,’ Caroline said. ‘The strongest girl in the world! Do you want to be like Pipi?’

‘Yes please,’ Anya said. 

‘Well,’ Caroline said, pressing her advantage, ‘then let Finn go and we’ll tell you how you’re going to save the world.’ 

Caroline realized that they had side-stepped the issue that had upset Anya initially. Well there was a time and a place for that. This was probably the place, but most definitely not the time. 

Look, she’s letting him out, Simonale sent.

The Anya-thing had opened her mouth so wide that the teeth ringing it seemed more like jagged crystals surrounding some horrible cave. It was as if a boring rock had been split asunder, producing a nightmare hole you just wouldn’t want to stick your finger into. From deep inside that morbid mouth came the sound of Finn climbing out of the Anya-thing’s insides. 

This is revolting, he sent.

Just get out here before she changes her mind, Caroline replied.

After a few moments more of progressively louder grunting, Finn’s head appeared in the dim light of the beast’s throat. He used his hooves to hook himself into the teeth crevices, then with a final push he slopped back into the dream space. His pupils, saucer shaped and bloodshot, darted around despairingly. Then his gaze settled on Caroline and he seemed to calm.

‘Are you OK?’ Caroline said.

Finn didn’t answer immediately. He seemed to be doing some sort of self-diagnostic. Finally he said, ‘Yes, it appears that I am uninjured from my…confinement.’

Caroline gave him a look which she hoped imparted the message “Don’t push her”. Finn seemed to get the hint and floated  alongside Caroline to face the Anya-thing. 

‘Now that we’re all friends,’ Caroline said, ‘let’s talk about saving the world shall we.’

‘We’re not really going to save the world,’ Anya said. ‘Are we?’

Carline gave her what she hoped was her most winning smile. ‘Absolutely we are. But what we need to do we must do quickly. First let me introduce you to my friends. Finn you’ve already met. He’s a dolphin in real life, a Prince actually.’

Anya gave a squeal which may or may not have been surprise or post-Finn indigestion. 

‘And this,’ Caroline flexed her neck and nodded towards her back, ‘is Simonale. He’s from my dreamworld, and keeps things running whilst I’m away.’

‘Like a butler?’ Anya said.

Don’t say a word, Caroline sent to Simonale.

I wouldn’t dream of it, milady, Simonale replied, the sarcasm dripping from their tone like water from an icicle.

‘Yes,’ Caroline replied to Anya’s question, ‘like a butler. Anya we’re here because I need your help. I need you to do something very important for me. Something in the real world. Do you understand?’

The Anya-thing rolled around itself, coming back to face Caroline. 

‘You need me to talk for you,’ Anya said.

Caroline was surprised by Anya’s perception. Anya had always been, well challenging was the word Caroline’s mother used. Petulant, abrasive, and whining were all concepts that Anya had perfected. But perceptive was not a word that Caroline had ever heard her parents use in relation to describing Anya. 

‘Yes,’ Caroline said. ‘That’s exactly it. There’s something important I have to do, but I can’t explain it to my parents. You know we use sign language?’

Anya nodded.

‘Well,’ Caroline continued, ‘that won’t do this time. What I need to do is, well it’s complicated. I’m sure that Uncle Peter and Aunty Maria won’t want me to do it. So I need you to persuade them for me.’

‘Is it something dangerous?’ Anya said.

Caroline looked at Finn.

‘No,’ Finn said, shaking his head. ‘In fact it’s the opposite. We’re going to cure Caroline.’

In what probably resembled the fabled Mexican standoff, Finn, Caroline and the Anya-thing looked at each other in disjointed time. 

Finally Anya said, ‘But she’s in…incure…a write off. That’s what my dad says.’

‘Anya,’ Finn said. ‘Your cousin is very sick, it’s true. But we dolphins have magic that will make her better.’

‘Magic?’

The word was injected with skepticism. Caroline wondered if Anya had ever stretched her imagination beyond the world of practical realism her father painted over his family’s life. Had she not taken a toy beyond the cardboard cut-out world that it came boxed in? Never brought two separate play worlds together in a mishmash of creative endeavor? What had Anya become but a talking replica of Caroline’s own inarticulate dispassion. Caroline moved in closer and touched her cousin’s dream-form with her hoof.

‘Look,’ Caroline said. ‘Here I touch you, myself a unicorn and you a space monster. We are talking, and here is another being not like either of us.’ She indicated Finn. ‘What is magic if not this? And if we can do this, what more can we do? I am sick, Anya. You know that, you’ve known it all your life. I am your disabled cousin, the one your friends’ pity and, yes I know, make fun of.’

Anya shifted, but didn’t deny the indirect accusation.

Caroline said, ‘But the dolphins can make me better. Help me to walk and talk.’

Anya looked at Finn. ‘Why would they do that?’

Finn glanced at Caroline. Smart, this one, he sent.

Caroline approximated a shrug. 

‘Anya,’ Finn said. ‘We need Caroline’s help. A long time ago, people and…dolphins were connected. Now we cannot communicate. We’re like your cousin,’ he nodded towards Caroline. ‘We want to talk to humankind, but we need a voice. Caroline can be our voice, but she needs a voice of her own first. And to really help us, we need her to be able to swim with us.’

This was clever. Finn hadn’t said that the dolphins would not support her invalidity. By phrasing it in terms of swimming, needing to exist with the dolphins in their native environment, it was less threatening to Anya. A walking, talking Caroline was a threat to Anya’s position as the ‘normal’ child in their extended family. Putting Caroline in the ocean, a place Anya was forbidden to go without extreme supervision, placed no counterstrike to her cousin’s fixation on her own importance.

Finn said, ‘Anya, we need you to persuade Caroline’s parents to let her come into the ocean.’

The Anya-thing’s mouth turned downwards. The crinkles on her face cracked like splintering saplings. 

‘Could Caroline drown?’ Anya said.

This had not occurred to Caroline. She had assumed that Finn would make sure that, whatever they were doing to her in the ocean, drowning was not part of the plan. A spring of fear broke through from her subconscious. Unable to penetrate the barrier of reality, in this dream place it made itself known. Drowning was one of her worst fears. The horror sinking, unable to more; holding her breath for as long as possible until her traitorous mouth and let water wash in. Could Finn let that happen to her? She looked at him, hoping he saw her nervousness. 

Finn said, ‘No, Anya. Caroline will be supported by enough dolphins to carry several adults. She will be safe; you have my word.’

This seemed to be enough for the Anya-thing. Two chubby protrusions formed and patted themselves together. 

‘So you’ll help us?’ Caroline said.

Anya nodded. The folds of her chin opened and closed like the segments of a folding garage door.

‘How will you persuade my parents to let me go?’ Caroline said.

‘Oh that’s easy,’ said Anya. ‘I’ll tell them you told me to tell them to do it!’

Caroline thought fast. ‘I think,’ she said, ‘that you may have to throw a tantrum.’

There was a monotone pause whilst all parties let this suggestion resonate. Finally, the Anya-thing performed what appeared to resemble a summersault. Returning to her original position, she swiveled to look first at Finn and then at Caroline.

‘I am rather good at those,’ Anya said.

Caroline belched laughter at the understatement. She said, ‘As soon as we leave, you must wake up. But remember what you promised. Can you do that?’

‘I can,’ Anya said firmly.

Finn bowed to Anya and said, ‘Please forgive me dear Anya, for anything I said earlier that gave offense. I hope we will be friends in the future.’

The Anya-thing glided over to Finn and placed a protrusion on his neck. 

‘I think we will be more than that,’ Anya said. 

Caroline glanced sharply at her cousin. Anya sensed much. Perhaps this was not surprising, given their shared heritage. 

They left Anya’s dream the same way they had entered it, crossing the void back to Caroline’s Queendom in silence. Caroline’ worried about whether Anya could accomplish this feat. Anya knew Caroline’s parents, but she didn’t know them. She didn’t know about her mother’s worries over Caroline’s future; didn’t know about her father’s fears about the cost of her condition; didn’t know about the black fights, the brittle silences, the separate bedrooms. All the things that Caroline, the manakin observer in their lives, saw and heard every day. Yet there was a chance. If nothing else, Caroline entertained the possibility that her parents might consider the chance of her drowning. Then their lives would be restructured around a less decrepit focus. Losing her would be hard, but she knew the worst hatred of themselves that they buried. And she knew it was her mother who had it the most. She who had born Caroline, realized from that first placement of the baby in her arms that something was wrong. Cried at the doctors to fix it, fix it now! Taken the guilt of every glass of maternity wine. She who wanted to be rid of the passion of guilt at bringing this into the world. It was her mother that she must press. When the inevitable rejections of Anya’s rant came, her mother must be made to see that Caroline needed to pass beyond the reach of her mother’s arms. Beyond her power to save her daughter if misfortune should befall. Pushed into the world of random chance, where Caroline might die a death that would not be her mother’s fault. 

This was going to be a tag-team job.

Back in her Queendom, Finn took his leave in front of the castle. He touched his hoof to hers. The connection made a twinkling clack.

‘I think,’ he said, ‘that your cousin is a quite remarkable young girl. Just like you’.

A crimson sneeze blew down the sides of Caroline’s neck. ‘She has been in my shadow all her life. I didn’t realize how much it had affected her. I hope she will follow through. I think she understands well enough.’

Finn nodded. ‘Let us pray so.’ He bowed deeply. ‘I must go. I need to rehearse my team for your entry into the ocean.’

Caroline returned the bow. ‘I will meet you in the sea as arranged. But�"‘

‘No buts,’ Finn retorted. ‘This is a solid plan. Lord Skagen is the schemer I can think of. We are executing the point of the plan here, but remember the scope of it builds behind us. Its lines are so spread that the whole world will be included eventually.’

Caroline shivered. The thought of such an enterprise effecting the entire planet was too fantastical. Her life to date had revolved around concerns over three main problems: not pissing herself, not shitting herself, and how to communicate the likelihood of both of those disasters to her parents. That the woes of the world might fall on her shoulders. Yet somehow the sum total of humankind’s problems seemed to weigh much the same as the troubles of her personal incontinence. 

‘Farewell then…my Prince,’ she said. 

Finn locked eyes with her and stood motionless. For a moment she thought he was going to try to kiss her. She tensed. How the hell did unicorns kiss? The muscles of her lips seemed to contort in a rigor. Finn stepped back. Perhaps she had put him off with this unintended grimace.

‘Until later,’ he said. He backed away, turned and sped off in the direction of the forest.

Caroline watched Finn until he had disappeared into the tree fringe. Then she let out a deep sigh.

‘Problems, your Highness?’ Simonale said.

Caroline started. She had forgotten they were still perched on her back. She shook her mane. They executed a summersault and landed in front of her. She stamped a hoof experimentally. Yes, that worked nicely.

Simonale shrugged. ‘No use being grumpy with me. Better look in a mirror and stick your tongue out.’

She sighed again. ‘Were you always this annoying?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘But I think this situation has made me even worse. I do wonder,’ his voice took on a wistful tone,’ whether you are going to need us once you’re strutting around like queen of the world.’

Caroline laughed. She stopped when she saw they weren’t smiling. 

‘I’ll always need you,’ she said.

‘Indeed? One might argue that the whole reason for our,’ they swept their arms around expansively, ‘existence is to mollify your horrible life.’

Caroline looked behind her. The crenellations of the battlements were filled with her subjects. Most of them, caricatures of animals she loved to look at on the TV at home, hung way out over the edge. Could she refute Simonale? Her Queendom and its inhabitants had been with her for as long as she could remember. At no time had she ever not relied on them to cheer her up. In her darkest moments, when suicide would have been a welcome ticket out of her personal hell, she had come here and let them massage her vanity. They had saved her. Naturally, they were her; she had saved herself. But with the fruition of Skagen’s plan, there would be nothing to save. She couldn’t lie to them.

She said, ‘I cannot promise a life for you after my reformation.’

After a pause that lasted somewhere between a second and eternity, a lone sob floated down from the castle walls.

‘Well I for one,’ Simonale said, ‘think that’s pretty f*****g ungrateful.’

*********

Caroline awoke to a ruckus outside her bedroom. She heard raised voices, her father’s and Uncle Anton’s, intermixed with Anya’s unmistakable whine. It sounded like the battle had devolved into adult males versus Anya. After what Caroline had seen Anya do to Finn, this could theoretically be filed under ‘no contest’. She couldn’t understand what was being said, but it was obvious that Anya was being wholly unreasonable in the face of grown-up logic. She had to enter the fray, and fast. She gathered her magical strength. It obeyed more readily than ever before, and it was stronger. She gagged as a fountain of energy ejaculated inside her head like an erupting oil well. She fought to suppress the flow. She wanted a build-up of pressure. She needed to fling the magic farther than she had ever done before. Like a battle medic frantically applying force to staunch a ruptured artery, she stemmed the flow. The pressure backed down then, as if hitting some deep mental floor, rebounded to press the inside of her skull. She didn’t know how long she could hold this. 

Through the crack between door and floor she saw a silent shadow. Like a stalked mouse it moved and stopped. Her mother? It had to be. She imagined her mother stood behind the door, ear cupped, listening for any sound of Caroline stirring. It was time. Caroline focused so hard that she frowned, a novel sensation for her. Then she released the magic straight at the door.

She estimated the distance to the door at about ten feet. A bar of pearl light stretched out with impressive speed, covering half the distance in a second. But then it slowed. Inch by inch the velocity dropped until it limped like an ancient ant. Caroline bore down on it with an intensity that fed from every black moment, every pitying look, every fawning well-wisher. These feelings were stored in an obsidian vault, apparently waiting for this precise moment to come to her aid. 

I release you, she said to the vault’s occupants. 

They looked at the virgin light in their coal sky and leapt at it with ravenous intent. Along the magic’s barrel they ran, gaining speed as they rushed to its face. They exploded into the stagnant barrier like cavalry breaking into a line of regulars. The result was highly satisfactory. The magical bar plunged forward. It went through the door at about chest height for an adult. 

Caroline watched the shadow feet. Nothing happened. The feet stayed put. 

The magic ran out. 

The feet moved. The doorknob turned. Caroline heard cheap plywood scrape against decades of varnish. Her mother entered and closed the door behind her. She came over to Caroline’s bedside, knelt down and saw that she was awake.

‘My darling,’ her mother said, ‘I’m so sorry they woke you.’ She brushed a strand of hair out of Caroline’s face. ‘Anya is being completely absurd. She had some dream about you telling her you had to swim with dolphins in the sea.’ Her mother got a hard look in her eyes. ‘Too much freedom that one.’

Caroline took this as an insult aimed at her Uncle and Aunt. She moved her fingers to the position that indicated she needed to talk, urgently. Normally this was reserved for a fast-track toilet trip. Her mother tensed and glanced at Caroline’s wheelchair. Caroline flexed her fingers. No. 

Her mother relaxed and said, ‘What is it darling?’

Caroline stared at her mother with an intensity she hoped would impart the seriousness of this conversation. Her mother’s head jerked as it had touched a live wire. She leant so close to Caroline that a static charge from her nose pin-pricked Caroline’s cheek. 

‘I’m listening,’ her mother whispered. 

Caroline steadied her breathing and focused. She pulled the light of the room into her. In her mind she formed a projection of Finn, or at least how she imagined he looked; strong and lithe, an aquatic acrobat. She rotated his head to look at her mother. Gently, she pushed the hologram out of her mind until it squatted in the inches between her head and her mother’s. Caroline kept her gaze focused on her mother’s eyes, but with her mind she moved the image through the front of her mother’s forehead. Her mother’s pupils widened. 

Yes, projected Caroline. This is what I want, what I need. You must see past the danger, past the accusations of unfit parenting. My happiness is all that’s important. Reject the hard thinking of father, of uncle. Listen to Anya. Hear her. She is my voice. She speaks for me. 

Caroline moved her fingers to a rarely used sequence: middle finger over forefinger, and ring finger over pinkie. It was a private symbol between her and her mother, only used when Caroline felt she was not being heard; when she was being marginalized, decentralized, removed from the family. Her mother had taught it to her, but it was not to be abused. This was a cry for attention.

The muscles of her mother’s jaw spasmed. Never had Caroline used this set between just the two of them. It implied that her mother alone was responsible for something egregious. There had been a failing of such calamitous unknowing that only drastic action would fix. As her mother opened her mouth, hell rent into the room.

Hell, in this sense, had subcontracted its fire and brimstone to Anya. She had kicked open the door to Caroline’s bedroom, having dodged the flailing fingers of her father and, equally deftly, the barrage of foul language from her Uncle. Anya sprinted towards Caroline, skidded and rebounded off the bed. Caroline’s mother’s mouth hung agape. Before a reprimand could be issued, Anya launched her second front. 

‘Aunty Maria,’ Anya said, ‘Caroline must swim with the sea dolphins! Don’t you understand? That rubbish session in the pond wasn’t enough. You want her to be happy don’t you?’

Faced with a question it was impossible for her to answer in the negative, Caroline’s mother nodded. The men came into the room, and Caroline’s father began to speak. Her mother’s hand snapped up, palm open. The command in her movement was absolute. Planets would have ceased spinning at that resolution. 

Anya continued, ‘Can’t you see how much it means to her? She wants to be able to see them in the wild, not in a zoo. If you don’t let her do this it’s…well it’s like animal cruelty!’

Caroline’s mother just stared at Anya. The silence in the room was punctured only by a bird perched on the balcony. It was as if Anya’s words had flown outside, perched on the railings and continued their twittering.

Anya delivered her smackdown with aplomb. ‘Anyway, they probably won’t show up…anyway.’

Relegating a dangerous event to the level of a tame dip in the ocean was a masterstroke. Caroline wondered if any of the adults had noticed the familiarity of Anya’s final sentence. Apparently they had not, since her father took this opportunity to vent his frustration at the entire situation.

‘For f***s sake, Maria,’ he said.

‘Peter, language!’ shrieked Aunt Anita from the doorway.

Her father pounded his fist into his palm. ‘I don’t care. This is ludicrous. Are you seriously considering putting our daughter into the real ocean? With waves and…and sharks and the like?’

Caroline wasn’t sure what “the like” was but felt that dolphins were probably included in this category. 

Her mother rose ponderously, like a pneumatic piston reverting to it’s standing position. She turned to face her husband.  Uncle Anton took a step away from his brother and turned slightly, as if judging how quickly he could bolt for the exit. Caroline saw her father moisten his lips. It was so close now. 

‘I,’ her mother said, ‘am of the opinion that you,’ she jabbed a finger at her husband, ‘are only interested in what makes your life with our daughter as pain free as possible.’ 

Holy s**t, Caroline thought. She’s going to let him have it, right in his face and in front of the whole family.

Her mother continued, ‘Since the day Caroline was born, you have measured the track of time as those moments you can get away from us,’ (she punctuated this word with enough venom to kill a rhino), ‘and enjoy yourself. You have left me to get to know Caroline, the only one here who does. You don’t know a thing about what’s inside her. All you see is the husk that you wheel around, lift up and down, and spoon feed. I am her mother, her friend and her confidant. She tells me things. Oh not with words, that’s too crass for any of you to understand.’ Her mother waved an arm around luxuriously. All three adults leant back as if it were a two-foot t**d. ‘And what I am being told now, is that this experience is what Caroline wants to make the f*****g s****y excuse for a life that God has seen fit to trap her in better. Not you,’ she pointed at Aunt Anita, ‘you,’ she lined Uncle Anton up, ‘and most certainly not you,’ her father flinched as the fickle finger of fate almost poked his eye out, ‘will tell me what is, and is not, fit for the fruit of my womb to experience.’ She took a breath. ‘If Caroline wants to go into the ocean and find dolphins, then if no-one else will help I swear I will wheel her chair down that f*****g beach myself, in front of all those prancing a******s, and push her into the sea with a smile on my face.’

Caroline knew Simon & Garfunkel’s song The Sound of Silence but hadn’t understood it. Now she did. Silence did have its own sound. Like black was the absence of color, it was still a color itself. Silence was the black of sound. All other noise was the rainbow of sound, but silence painted everything else out; nothing could leech into it. 

No, it was worse. 

It actually spoke, that was its ultimate power. In saying nothing, it screamed a dare: who has the balls to fill me? Who’s going to break first, eh? C’mon you b******s, I know one of you will give in to the torture. It won’t be Anya. Little girls could win Olympic gold in sullen silence; better try to break a cat. And the mother? Come on! She made me, created me, formed me. She and I are pals. I’m practically sticking my tongue down her throat. You! You! or You! Peter, Anton and Anita. Who’s feeling like putting my neck on the chopping block and hacking down? Who wants to be the one that gives in? 

Caroline reached for the magic. She dragged it up from every corner of her being. Like iron filings summoned by a magnet, it came to her it fits and starts. But come it did, forming a ball in the pit of her stomach. Bigger it got, bigger and hotter. She felt like a grenade was going off inside her. She convulsed. Her mother looked down and Caroline saw her eyes turn from anger to worry. Her mother moved.

No! It can’t be her. She must not break first. All depended on this now. If her mother bent from the path, her father would re-establish his dominance. The whole plan: her cure, the bridge to the dolphin’s world, saving the f*****g planet for Christ’s sake, it would all go to s**t. She must act, now. Do it. Make them hear.

She forced the molten glob of magic up her throat. It entered her esophagus. She opened her mouth and threw it out.

‘Sea,’ she croaked.

It was the first word she had ever said. 

The silence broke. Damn girl, it said. That’s the best one anyone’s ever done on me! 

‘Oh Caroline,’ her mother said, and collapsed on the bed sobbing. 

Her father came over and knelt by her bed. He took Caroline’s hand and looked at her. She could see the waters rising. He put his arm around his wife, then nodded. 

’The sea it is,’ her father said.

‘Yea,’ Anya shouted. She jumped up and did a funny dance which Caroline had come to know as the ‘oh yeah, oh yeah’ jig used for successful present extortion.

**********

As expected, Caroline’s excursion attracted a crowd. However the family had not publicized the event, so those gathered were the usual collection of sun seekers, bored families and party leftovers found on any beach. Caroline was not phased. Being stared at was an embarrassment she had long since overcome. Since her earliest memories people had been gawking at her. Of course they didn’t do it openly. Sly viewing, that was the trick. There was the initial look; an opening of the iris, letting in more light to lessen the visual oppression dictated by her condition. The next stage was to quickly find a dull object to re-focus on, something not too far away. A pile of nearby dog s**t worked perfectly. It allowed peripheral observation of the mechanical t**d. Ah but she gave them a quandary; she was moved, but the doggy doo-doo was not. How could they continue to silently demean her when one of her parents pushed her towards them? She was amazed at how citizens would continue to map every steaming crevice of the anal offal, even with her wheelchair’s tires practically crushing their toes. They would jump out of the way, surprised - as if she were an alien artifact transported from space with the intention of radical dismemberment. People sucked.

The company that had arranged the original dolphin meeting had agreed to conduct this performance. It had not been hard for her father to recruit them. The publicity could be leveraged, ‘Local Company Aids Disabled Girl in Sea Dream’, or something like that. A lowly minion, probably one who had not yet learned the essential work skill of never volunteering, cradled a digital camera. The CEO, a man who made galactic footprints in the boggy sand, kept making frowning glances at the minion. Caroline imagined that it had, in no uncertain way, been expressed to the minion that dropping said camera would not only result in cessation of money, but any chance of a reference. Thus was presented the prospect of a life spent flipping burgers, marrying a walking piece of metal called Reychelle, and having unhappy sex in a smelly caravan mounted on cinder blocks. 

Caroline closed her eyes and allowed the sun’s glowing heat to wrap her. Preparations had been made. She was encased in a life jacket big enough to raise the Titanic, and sat in a special wheelchair facing the ocean, six feet from the water’s edge. She also had a wetsuit on. The insertion of her body into that had allowed an impromptu family team-building session.

Caroline could sense Finn was close to shore. If she squinted she thought she could see the dolphins arcing through the swell. It was time. Her father was wearing Hawaiian surfing shorts purchased specially; the gay flowers spoke of the fertility of the islands. 

‘Are you ready snowball?’ he said.

Snowball, he hadn’t called her that in years. She had not disapproved of the pet name; it was apt really. If he’d taken her to the top of snowy peak and tipped her out of her wheelchair, she would have become that very thing. The meaning of the phrase raison d’etre was ‘the reason for being’. Now her reason for being would become evident. If all went as planned she would emerge as…what would she be? Her whole life she had remained passive, on the outside at least. Inside was where she made her moves, did her thang. Now she would be turned inside out, changed from concave to convex. The inner self of her would be shown to the world. The outer skin, what she had been, would become invisible. Was she ready for this? 

She moved her fingers to indicate agreement. 

‘OK then,’ her father said. He stood and said something to the assistants

The wheelchair inched forward. Her heart rate increased. Thud-thud, thud-thud, THUD-THUD. It was all she could sense. Sound disappeared, only the sensation of this pulsating ball inside her remained. 

She felt tepid water touch her toes. She had never been in the sea before. Swimming pools yes, but they smelt of fetid chlorine. This was different. The sea smelled clean, like salt added to one of her mother’s soup experiments. Real salt crystals, things you could set in a ring and call them an engagement. She inhaled and deeply and was transposed billions of years to humankind’s ancestral homeland. 

We are ready, came Finn’s voice in her head.

As am I, she responded. 

We’ll get you as soon as you’re a few feet in.

What about these men? she said.

They won’t be a problem. I have six of my finest with me. They’re…experienced.

Caroline imagined six ninja dolphins, encased in charcoal, ready to dropkick two humans and pluck her from her wheelchair. She suppressed a smirk.

The sea passed over her lap and she shivered. The water entered her wetsuit. Its clammy embrace reminded her too well of wetting herself. They pushed her out until the ocean breached her midriff and stopped. This was as far as the company would allow her to go, public liability etc. etc. Well enough. It suited their needs. The dolphins only needed a few feet of water to work in. 

Phase one, Finn said.

She heard the screams from the shore before she saw the dolphins. Perhaps they looked like sharks. A swarm of fins lurching in, congregating on the helpless cripple, about to gorge themselves on her flaccid body. Then came the sound of a hundred people floundering for their phones; muttered curses of damp fingers unable to activate biometric programs. Those with facial recognition had it easier. Oh yes, they’d have to swipe over to video mode, no use for static shots here. The first one to get the red banner on the news would be socially wealthy indeed.

You fuckers are in for a surprise, she thought.

The dolphins divided into three groups of two. How they had practiced the maneuver they next performed she had no idea. Perhaps they used human manakins or had gone down to Brazil and ambushed a few unsuspecting surf loungers. Either way it was stunningly effective and, to any rough-housing schoolboy, classically simple. One dolphin thrust around the back legs of each man. The second dolphin, holding some feet away, launched itself out of the water into the man’s chest. Down they went. She sensed the final two dolphins swimming towards her.

Phase two, Finn ordered.

The dolphins used their beaks to grasp the life jacket’s flailing straps and tugged her out of the wheelchair in a smooth motion. Like an EVA astronaut detaching from their jetpack rig, she separated from the wheelchair. She heard a raging bull scream. The two assistants were still flailing, tangled up with dolphins. So this, Caroline was sure, was her father.

Cover! Finn yelled.

One dolphin from each of the attack teams detached and swam behind her. 

Don’t hurt him, she cried.

Please! came the disdainful response. It wasn’t Finn.

She heard her father yell, ‘What the fu…’ and then probably swallow a gallon of seawater. It was too late anyway; she was out of her depth now. The other two dolphins from the attack teams were now behind her, adding their propulsion to the two dolphins pulling her. They accelerated into open water.

Phase three, Finn said.

This was the instruction for the dolphins running interference to withdraw. She sensed them draw up alongside the tug team. They were to defend against any pleasure craft that decided to attempt a valiant rescue. But the coast was literally clear.

Finn appeared in front of her. It was first time she had actually met him. 

I…I don’t know what to say, she sent.

In her mind he smiled. 

Then let’s stick to ‘hello’. We’ll have plenty of time later, but for now needs must. Lord Skagen awaits and we have only so much time before the Coast Guard launches a serious search for you. Come, we need to be far enough from land to avoid interference with the spell. You must rest. Relax, my team will do the work. Gather your strength. 

She knew he meant inner strength. She had the physical endurance of a toddler. 

They swam with Caroline on her back, facing the sky. She thought about entering her Queendom but decided that facing Simonale’s negativity was too much.

Time passed, but not much of it by her estimation. When they slowed to a stop, she couldn’t see the coast anymore. 

My lady. It was Lord Skagen.

She was gently rotated to her left. He lay on the surface. She saw his dull coat, covered with scrapes and scars.

Lord Skagen. It makes me happy to meet you face to face.

Indeed. He bobbed his head. But pleasantries must wait I’m afraid. We have little time and my work will, I fear, take more of it than we have allotted. 

Skagen turned to look towards what Caroline assumed was the shore. She could picture the scene. The frantic calls. The demands for immediate action: helicopters, speed boats, and nuclear submarines. All for one, and none for all. 

I am ready, she said, with not quite as much confidence as she had hoped.

Skagen turned back to look at her. He inclined his head. 

Fear not. The magic of the ancients will not fail you. Now close your eyes, there is nothing to see anyway. Relax and breathe. These honorable dolphins will support you. They are the pinnacle of our entire race. Beneath them, stretching out around the oceans, the pyramid of our kind reaches up. From the base, circulating on the sea floors, up through the middle class, into the narrow court. Up! Up they feel towards us. 

Then there is you, she said.

No, he replied. Then there is Finn.

She felt Finn rise beneath her, so that her hand rested on his skin. 

Skagen continued, Finn links to you, and I link to him. I am the conduit, but he is the point of this power. It must be thus. I cannot conduct the magic into you, only he can do that. It is the bargain he has made, the risk.

The risk? She tensed. 

Oh yes, Skagen said. Realize that what we attempt here will bring up such force as has not been applied for generations. Fractured we have been, impossible to wield as one unit. But now you come to us and the will of the dolphins aligns once again, if only for this short time and �" 

He stopped. 

They are ready, he said.

They? 

All of them. Every dolphin from the poorest waif begging for scraps off some creaking African fishing boat, to Finn’s mother. Even now her majesty floats, alert and open. That is the key. They must open themselves to me, all of them. This is the factor that I have worked to achieve. Getting them all to allow me to draw the magic from them. It is hard for you to understand now, but I hope you will appreciate it once we are done. We have closed ourselves off since our retreat to the ocean. Each has guarded the store of magic allowed to them, from the smallest itch to the royal tide. Now I command them all to release it.

She wanted to know more. What�"

Peace. Now is the time. Close your eyes. When it comes, do what is needful to to bear it. Curse me, scream at Finn. But you must endure. This will not be pleasant for you.

Caroline couldn’t escape the thought that this information would have been nice to know beforehand.

**********

Skagen was a conductor. As the world’s dolphins allowed their magical reserves to be pooled, his function was to encourage or berate as needed. Here a pull, there a push. He was molding a…sound? No, more like a bubble of sheer will. He pictured it now as a reverse air bubble. When air escaped from the ocean floor it expanded as it rose. The reducing pressure of the water allowed it to breathe out in expectation of its return to the fold. Magic was different. It started big and diluted. He was surprised that every dolphin committed to the act. He’d expected some malfeasants. The sum of the rank and file’s contribution, voluminous as it was, wasn’t near enough to do the necessary. Thus as it rose he added the increasing magical force of higher and higher ranked dolphins. Now the recipe thickened and condensed. He decided when and where to enforce it. And it accelerated. This he had suspected would happen. It made gravitational sense, the speed increasing through the constriction of numbers. He had hoped for it, it avoided him thinking too much about the sum total of what he was wielding. 

Closer it came. He could sense it now. The bubble had reached the Court and gained real bite. The Lords and Ladies had magical reserves that made the spell a potential reality. The bubble wound in on itself with the addition of their power. Through the Court it ran, until it met her. The Queen was the most powerful dolphin of all. He had worried that she would baulk. Even despite the apparent capitulation over her son’s feelings for Caroline, would Valeena decide that this girl was not worth saving. Yet Valeena offered no resistance. She brought her walls down and her magic flooded out. It encompassed the bubble, squeezed it into a ball no larger than a dolphin. 

With real velocity now, the sum of the magic raced towards them.

Prepare, Skagen broadcast.

The six dolphins supporting Caroline tensed. They would add their magic for the final push, but their primary job was to hold her up at all costs, even if that cost was their lives. However Finn was the key. Skagen would soon add his own magic. But Finn’s magic as almost as powerful as his mother's. Plus his connection to Caroline was the channel the magic would rip through. Rip, yes that was an apt word. All Skagen’s research had shown that the apex was most at risk. Finn’s magic that would act as a syringe to inject the force into Caroline. If Finn’s magic was not strong enough, then the force would explode out of him. The result of that would be spectacularly destructive to the Prince. In fact it would certainly also kill Skagen and the six supporting dolphins. Caroline would probably remain unaffected physically, but mentally it would vegetablize her. She would float out to see on the tide and the sharks would eat her alive. 

He quashed his worries. It did no good to reconstitute the risks he had rotated over and over. They were committed now. 

Skagen felt the ocean beneath him push up. 

**********

At first Finn didn’t feel anything. He thought that something had gone wrong. He’d expected what Skagen had told him to prepare for, an explosion of power. His job was to contain it, mold it into a fine point and fling it into Caroline. Once in her, Skagen would direct the power to the areas it was needed. Finn was to stay connected in case Skagen needed help.

He was bodily lifted, as if a whale had decided to surface underneath him. He didn’t understand. Skagen had said the magic, when it reached them, would be no larger than his own body. How could something that small move tons of water? Then he realized he was being stupid. Skagen had told him that a powerful unicorn could cut a channel through the sea just to go a prancing. For nothing more than entertainment they could push a million tons of water back. The power here perhaps equated to one such. For this moment, a unicorn had returned and amused itself by throwing sea balls at him.

It began as a tingling in his fluke, not a sudden onrush. Then he noticed that he could see atoms of water. Speckles moved into his vision, infinitesimal globules moving with the speed of coral growth. Had time slowed, or was he hallucinating? The molecules slapped soundlessly together, joined for a moment then split apart again. Was this water? Then they turned and looked at him quizzically. He wanted to ask them what was happening, but this wasn’t a speak moment. In fact, he didn’t seem to have a mouth. Where was his body actually? It had vanished. The globs seemed to be laughing at him. He resented their amusement. He was not a plaything for their ridicule. 

No? they seemed to say. What was the point of him them?

This was a good question. What was the reason for his existence? He supposed it was to become ruler of the dolphins.

The globs scoffed. 

Ok, ok he mused. Bad choice. Perhaps…to mend the dolphin/human bridge.

Better they projected. And yet, really? A repair contractor? A fixer, a doer, a tepid worker?

He bristled at this. Caroline would have smiled at him.

The globs rotated a little, as if looking up. 

Caroline? He sensed their interest. To love her?

Ah, the globs nodded. Yes, love. Interesting. We loved once. Loved too much probably, but there you go. What’s a glob to do? You can’t stop love, can’t prevent it. Of all the forces in the universe it’s the most persuasive, most intricate. Look at you, dolphin. Look at her, human. So many boundaries, and yet…

Yes! I love her. I want her. 

Indeed? Are you sure? The globs bobbed. Do you have any idea of the pain she may cause you? What we can do to you is minute compared to the agony she can cast you into. She can force open your soul. Have you ever seen a human open an oyster with a knife? They find the weakness, there’s always one you know, and keep pushing until the point slides in. It’s almost sexual. In it goes, up to the shaft…ha ha! Then they twist it. Oh it’s orgasmic. The two halves part open. There’s a sucking sound you know, a pop. And inside, it’s the soft, fleshy part they want. She will be able to do that to you. 

I don’t care. Can we get on with this?

The globs looked at each other and shrugged. It’s your life. But don’t say we didn’t warn you!

He was about to retort but the globs were too fast for him. In a moment they merged into a single entity, about the size of a grown dolphin, and blew straight at him.

The universe detonated inside Finn’s head.

**********

Skagen saw Finn go rigid, as if an hundred electric eels had struck him at once. The power that rent though the Prince amazed Skagen, and he thought he had prepared himself for it. Yet Finn held, or at least seemed to. Skagen saw the magic conduct to Caroline’s hand. She spasmed, jerked so hard that she almost leapt off the dolphins underneath her. They urgently repositioned themselves to re-support her. Finn moved with Caroline. It was as if her hand were sealed to his skin, which was probably not far from the truth. Even with the force of an erupting underwater volcano, he did not think he could separate the bond. Good! Now it was down to him.

Once, when he was young, he had witnessed an execution. These were rare events nowadays, but the old king’s father had been something of a stickler for the letter of the capital law. Dolphin executions could be quite creative. He had read once that the method he’d witnessed had been adopted from the Vikings. Kelp rope had been attached to each of the dolphin’s fins, then wrapped around the flukes of two killer whales. The whales had then swum in opposite directions. The result was quite artistic. He had seen the anatomy of a dolphin for the first time. The cartilage and the innards now released from their confinement and drifting merrily around. Now he was now looking at the inside of Caroline’s body as if it had been splayed in front of him. With deftness he directed the magic to the places that he had memorized. Here in the brain, there in the spinal cord. Splice, cauterize, remold, remove. The magic sucked at the bubble like a hungry pup at its mother’s teat. He was amazed at how fast the magic was consumed. Amazed, and concerned. By his estimation the task was not yet half done, and already more than two thirds of the magic was gone. 

Caroline’s brain was close to healing, and the nerve connections down her spine were done. Yet the link between the two remained open. He had to close it. He could sense the bubble’s diminishment and cursed himself. He had miscalculated the rate of magical reduction. Caroline’s body was hungry for repairs, so ravenous that it consumed the bubble. Like two lovers reaching for each other, the nerve endings longed to couple. Her spine was sending out microscopic feelers like a baby human’s fingers seeking to entwine with its mother’s. But the pace was slowing. 

Anger swelled in him. He screamed at the gap to snap shut. But it ignored him.

What…is…it? Finn sent to him.

Skagen tore enough force to reply. The gap is not closed, and we are almost out of magic.

There was a pause, long enough to fill ten oceans. 

Finally Finn said, Is the life force of six enough?

Skagen baulked. They were down through all the plans to the most desperate. Although Finn’s six friends had pledged their lives to this endeavor, it was one thing to promise but another to commit. Yet life force contained the most powerful magic there was. But how could he ask it? Then he realized that it was not his decision to make.

They will be enough, Skagen said.

With a lack of hesitation Skagen found disturbing, Finn replied.

Use them, he commanded.

Skagen shivered. But he had no time to argue or rebuke. It had to be finished. He forced a spire to extrude from the bubble. In his mind’s eye he pictured the six dolphins floating below Caroline. They had already committed their magic, so appeared as shadows. Yet inside each of them pulsating hearts beat red and willing. The spire divided into six. It divined his intention. Skagen wondered whether Caroline drove it. Was the desire to be cured, so close now, enough to will her to commit this? It made no difference. The six spires slid six stilettos into six dolphin hearts. The life forces flowed up to meet in the central stem, and from there into the bubble. The bubble swelled. Caroline’s brain and spine, responding to this new insemination, pulsated. New magic flowed into the spell, and the gap knitted shut. 

There was a final flicker from the spell. Skagen was confused. The magic was used up, the repair done. Yet the spell did not die. It sparked, and no bigger than a pearl shot off in an easterly direction. Skagen followed it as far as his tired eyes could see. Once it had disappeared he ignored it. He would need to report it to the Queen. But for now his focus was Caroline, who was at least alive. 

**********

Caroline understood that she was different, but she couldn’t figure out what the change was. She was still Caroline Krusch. She thought, therefor she was. And she could think. She thought that the world was moving. It moved, and she moved, gently up and down. A feeling welled up. It wasn’t a memory; it was too inconsistent for that. Like a smell could trigger a feeling of place and time, the motion induced a feeling of being in her mother’s arms. And the salty tears dropping onto her infant face were…sea water. Sea? Water? She opened her eyes. Serene sky, with a naughty sun winking at her. 

My lady?

This voice was familiar. 

Caroline!

There was a name.

Finn? she said.

No Caroline it is I, Skagen. Finn is unconscious. I will attend to him next. But I needed to check on you first. 

Skagen! Did it work? 

I believe so, my lady, he replied.

She realized she was being selfish. Please check on Finn. I will find out how I am. Please look after him.

I will, he said.

She wondered what to do. Her entire life, from the moment she had been born up to now, she had been immobile. Where to begin? Well, might as well start at the end. She pictured the big toe on her right foot and, in her mind, wiggled it. An unknown sensation assailed her, yet she understood it. It was the feeling of her body moving. It was intricate. Once she had watched a documentary about a medieval tapestry in France. It depicted an invasion of England. On and on it went, describing the event. She felt like she was at the first stitch, and in front of her stretched all the things she would have to learn. She wanted to see Finn, to touch him. But before that she had, no must, know if she could…

She felt her vocal cords vibrate at her command. ‘My name is Caroline,’ she yelled to the sky. Oh my god it felt grand! Well and good, her body and mind seemed fine. She would do more later, but now she must know if Finn was ok.

**********

Finn was sure he was dead. If so, he had surely gone to whatever hell was reserved for dolphins who willingly sacrificed six of their closest friends. The last thing he remembered had been the flood of power that his friends’ deaths had released. He had successfully conducted all the magical power of the dolphins, but this final surge - perhaps because it had ultimately been caused by him - seemed to have weakened his resolve. When the life magic had come, he had flailed it like a decapitated sea snake. Had Skagen been able to apply the power to Caroline? 

He recalled his time in the belly of the Anya-beast. Imprisoned there, he had thought he might die. But at least he had been in virtual pain. Here he really felt crushed. He tried to flex his fluke. Spasms worse than jellyfish stings lanced up his body. He was dead.

Finn? Can you hear me?

He recognized Lord Skagen. So, perhaps he wasn’t quite deceased yet. Or, if he was the old codger had come along with him.

I hear you, Finn croaked. How bad is it?

Skagen didn’t answer, which Finn took to mean that it was very bad. Was Caroline even alive?

After a moment Skagen said, I fear, your highness, that your standing as the Court’s most handsome bachelor is going to be sorely contested. 

Finn divined from this that he was still alive, but that there had been material damage to his body. Oh well, a few battle scars gave one a certain air of radical romance. He tried to stretch but gave up. He would stick to mental conversation for the time being.

What about Caroline? he said.

She is awake and alert. I believe she is trying some exercises to check her condition. But she is worried about you. You should talk to her.

I will, Finn replied. I just need to get myself straight.

Getting ‘straight’ was a dolphin euphemism the origin of which was lost in time. Some thought it came from the unicorns’  fabled horns getting bent out of shape during heavy magical use. 

Aye, said Skagen. Do that, but not for long. She needs to feel you with her. And we must get her back to her family. It will take longer with just the two of us, although it will give her a good opportunity to practice movement before she makes landfall. 

**********

Caroline had worked her way up to her fingers. She bathed in the sensation of moving them in front of her face. Such wonderful things. The shapes you could make with them. She felt something slide beneath her and rise on her left side. She turned her head (marvelous!) and saw Finn. Reaching out, she placed a hand on his beak. He nuzzled her.

You are healed, he said. 

It seems that I am, she replied. And all thanks to you and Lord Skagen. 

The older dolphin had emerged on her other side. She laid a hand on his flank.

What happens now? she said.

Finn indicated a direction with his beak. We must get you back to shore. Already I sense that search parties are preparing to depart. Lucky for us that the instruments of the polis move slowly.

Caroline didn’t know what a polis was, but she got the point. She wondered where the dolphins who had helped lead her out were. 

Where are your friends? she asked Finn.

They have…gone ahead, Finn said. 

Caroline replied, Oh, I would have liked to have thanked them.

I will make sure that they receive all the praise they deserve, Finn said. Now, Lord Skagen and I must see you safely back to land. Hold on to us, we will swim at a slow pace. If you feel like it, you can kick. You need to practice using your muscles.

Practice? Caroline was confused.

Finn said, you have been confined to a wheelchair your whole life. You have never used your muscles. Lord Skagen designed the spell to reconstitute them, but your brain has not had to use the pathways necessary to operate them. You’re going to need to work on them. But luckily the best place to do that is in the water. So why wait?  

Caroline felt that she was being lectured, but let it go. The sensations she felt drowned out any negativity. Every new movement was a joy. Every flexation, every roll of her head. They started to move forward. She knew how to swim in theory She had been in the pool so often watching others do it. With the buoyancy of the flotation device, and her dolphin supports, she felt like a princess of the sea. She gloried in her rebirth, her new beginning.

All through the journey back to shore, she held on tight to Finn and Skagen. Her escorts left her to her thoughts, and she appreciated their discretion. She focused on her breathing and the rhythmic movement of her legs. In time, she heard the sound of distant siren. 

Remind me how this is going to work again? she said.

Skagen said, Finn and I will propel you as close to the shore as we can. In the final moment we will give you enough momentum to reach the beach. Lie flat, let the bouncy device give you support and use your hands to support yourself. You must attract attention. Yell as loudly as you can. 

Caroline laughed. I can do that. It seems my voice has been waiting all these years to flex its own muscles. 

Finn said, We’ll send you right to the middle of the densest group of people. Don’t try to stand on your own. Your sense of balance will be off. Ask for help. 

Right, Caroline said. Um…what happens after that?

There will be a period of adjustment, Skagen said. I imagine you will be the center of some attention for a while. This is crucial in fact. As we discussed, you should use any media attention to highlight the plight of the oceans. Make yourself into a champion of the sea. It healed you with its power. You can leverage that message to begin the task of forcing humankind to face this issue. 

And the dolphins? Caroline said.

That should come later, Finn replied. Once you’ve established yourself as a voice for the oceans you can concentrate on the people that really have the power to do something: politicians, business leaders and social figureheads. Skagen and I will help guide you.

And your mother? Caroline said. Perhaps she imagined it, but Finn seemed to shiver.

Skagen said, As Queen she represents the dolphins. If there is to be any contract between human and dolphinkind, it must be she that acquiesces to it. 

We are getting close, Finn said.

Caroline could hear indistinct shouting, voices dropping and rising. On one crescendo she thought her father’s inflection warbled out.

Finn said, Are you ready? 

Caroline wondered if she would have ever been ready for this. Her entire life she had wanted to walk and talk like a normal person. But this desire now optioned a thought. What if her identity had been constructed around her disability? The things that made her her had been removed, so what was she now? Did she need to begin from scratch, or could she employ the person she had been in forming this new entity? Was she still Caroline Krusch? Suppose she rebuilt herself and no-one actually liked her. She was in danger of being more stranded than she had been before. At least in the confines of her wheelchair she could blame god, or the universe, or her parents. But now who could she blame if she didn’t live up to all the expectations placed on her? She was going to find the answer to these questions out in short time if things didn’t go to plan.

We’re going to accelerate now, Finn said. Once we’re about six feet from the shore, we’ll give you a push and you can coast in, ok?

Ok, Caroline said. Will you come and see me in my Queendom tonight?

Finn nodded his beak. You’re going to have an exciting day. But don’t over-exert yourself. You need to get used to expending energy, and part of that is knowing when to rest and sleep.

I’m so nervous, Caroline said. 

Just look for your family, Skagen said. Get to your hotel room as quickly as possible. They’ll want to ask you what happened. Do you remember what to say?

Caroline scoffed. I remember. You drilled me well.

Well enough, said Skagen. Then it’s time. 

There was a lift in speed, and Caroline felt her shoulders push up out of the water. She was suddenly conscious of her hair streaming beside her. She tilted her head to look at it. Locks of black, the odd day-glow bead encasing various strands. She would be able to brush her own hair now. The luxury of it.

Now! Skagen said.

Caroline felt the power as the two dolphins flicked hard. She shot forward into a wall of noise.

The Miami Herald, Miami FL. 24^th June 2019. 

The Miracle of Miami, Editorial by Justin Thorn.

Caroline Krusch, the sixteen-year-old Wisconsin girl who emerged last Friday from the sea at Ft. Lauderdale, is being hailed as a modern-day miracle. The Pope described Ms. Krusch’s incredible rehabilitation as the first miracle of the modern age. Caroline’s story has made world headlines, in no part due to huge trending on social media. Videos of her arising from the ocean and walking unassisted into the arms of her waiting family, have blanketed the internet. 

Naysayers have accused the family of staging an elaborate hoax. Testimonials from her doctors have presented dutiful evidence of the severity of Caroline’s former condition. She was confined to a wheelchair, unable to communicate except by moving her fingers and hands in a form of sign language. Her cure, which according to doctors is ‘complete and unprecedented’ has restored full motor function to her body, as well as allowing her to talk for the first time. Copies of Caroline’s medical history, including MRI scans taken after her ordeal, have been released to the media by the family. Independent specialists have described the changes as unprecedented. The nerves connecting Caroline’s spine to her brain have regenerated, her muscles have recharged, and the speech center of her brain has activated. 

Caroline’s family have, predictably, kept her out of the public eye. However in a statement read by Caroline’s Uncle, Anton Krusch, Caroline states unequivocally that her cure was the result of “unknown forces from the ocean”. This has led to a deluge of disabled and terminally ill people congregating at the same beach that Caroline departed from. Local police have been hard pushed to control both the influx of patients, and the crowds of onlookers who have gathered to watch them. But to date no-one has had their ills cured, which has only fueled the hoax claims.

All requests for interviews with Caroline have been declined by the family’s lawyer. However, Caroline has promised a television interview where she will relive what happened to her. This interview, the subject of a frenzied bidding war amongst major television studios, ended up with NBC winning the rights. Following their success, studio executives announced that Stewart Hopper had agreed to come out of early retirement to conduct this one-off interview. Readers will recall that Hopper retired in a blaze of attention after the last Presidential election, which he declared “a damned national disgrace”. Vowing never again to appear on television, it seems that the prospect of conducting this interview has Hopper’s fans believing that Ms. Krusch may be able to wipe clean the slate of disgust that Hopper clearly felt the country had drawn.

Ms. Krush and her family have returned home to Wisconsin on a private jet provided by Chatter CEO, Marion McCoy. Caroline apparently called the self-styled Queen of Social Media, and whatever passed between them was enough to fast-track Caroline through the usual barriers that protect McCoy from the world. Now removed from the site of the miracle, the fervor surrounding Caroline has cooled somewhat. Although her continued absence from school has become an issue, with teachers calling for her to be home-taught to avoid damaging her classmates’ education.

The questions that Caroline’s cure has raised seem at times greater than the sum of their parts. Whilst no explanation has been forthcoming about what cured a birth disability that had been declared incurable, the Vatican’s tacit acknowledgment of her cure as a miracle (Caroline is a baptized Catholic), has led many church observers to believe that she is now destined for Sainthood. 

On a side note, the company that the Krusch family contracted to give Caroline her ’swim with the dolphins’ wish has denied that they were lax in allowing her to plunge into the sea in the first place. Flipper Encounters CEO, Mark Krug has publicly stated that his employees were attacked by unknown assailants. Caroline, Krug insists, was effectively kidnapped from the specially adapted wheelchair  used to put her into the ocean. Miami police have requested that anyone with video footage of Caroline’s disappearance contact them. However a trawl of internet feeds already shows several clips, reporting to be footage of Caroline’s kidnapping. This reporter has viewed the videos and finds the evidence confusing. Something certainly happens to the men tasked with helping Caroline into the sea. According to Krug, they were to simply wheel her into the sea for a short period, then pull her out. However this clearly went badly wrong. It remains to be seen whether the Krush family will take legal action against Flipper Encounters. Considering the outcome of the event, and unless Caroline suffers some relapse which leaves her in a worse condition than before, this would seem counterproductive for the Krusch family.

The lack of comment from the Krusch family, apart from the lure of the Hopper interview, has only fueled the world’s desire for an explanation. When it comes, if it comes, we can only hope that it matches up to the hype of this remarkable event. Should it transpire that Caroline Krusch and her family have duped the world into believing, for however short a time, in miracles then perhaps we might examine in ourselves why we have lost the power of belief. But if the Miracle of Miami turns out to be real, we are going to have to re-evaluate our view of science as the grail of humanity’s survival.