Page 4 of Mail Order Splash

“What if they’re pirates?” Eli waved off the idea. “We don’t even have swords or gold to give them.”

“Seriously, with the pirates again?” I shook my head. “You have a crazy obsession about this.”

“I’m telling you, man, I read about it. There really are pirates out here- not the wooden leg, eye patch kind, but pirates all the same,” Eli argued.

“Well, that boat over there doesn’t look like pirates. I looked at it from the yacht through my telescope before we left.”

“Sneaky, aren’t you, making us think you were being all wild?” Eli scoffed. “I should have known you’d already checked out the scene.”

“I’m not an idiot. I even brought an extra flare gun.” I grinned. “You could always give them one of those Eli smiles.”

“You’re wrong. You are an idiot, and so am I, for following you.” He turned his jet ski. “I’ll be right behind you, fearless leader.”

We were racing and having fun but the boat we’d been approaching kept blowing its horn. I looked behind us a few times, thinking it must have been signaling something, but there hadn’t been anything. Eli made a “what the heck?” face at me. I shrugged back at him, unconcerned, then kept going toward it, albeit slower than we’d been going prior.

“Looks like someone is in the water. What’s with the floating circle?” I pointed. “Maybe it is pirates, and they found a sunken treasure.”

“I’m telling ya, I read about it and your security guy is back on the yacht.” Eli frowned. “We should go back.”

“Eli, it’s two people. We’re two people. I think we can handle this.”

“Speak for yourself, Dalt. I don’t have your black belt in martial arts.”

“Like it matters out here.” I laughed and kept going.

We coasted to approach behind the boat cautiously, checking things out, then cut our motors to listen for what could have been happening. When I overheard them talking about something being hurt, I slid off my jet ski and swam around the boat to check things out.

“Hey, everything okay?” I asked at a distance.

It’s a dolphin! It’s a girl holding a dolphin! This is different. She doesn’t look like a pirate, although she does have a knife in her teeth.

I wasn’t sure what had caused it, but she suddenly began to explain that the dolphin had gotten tangled, so when we joined in with helping cut her free, it felt great to be there for it. The girl was obviously a strong swimmer because she’d been in the water for at least the whole time it took us to get there.

Why does she keep looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face? Maybe she has something wrong with her, she keeps blinking. Don’t say anything, just help.

“Now what?” I asked once the dolphin was cut free. “Are those cuts from the netting?”

“They appear to be. I don’t see any additional bite marks.”

She continued to try to get the dolphin to fight, but gave up when it didn’t. They were going to take her in, whatever that meant. I had a lot of questions, but they could wait. Eli and I headed back to the yacht with the jet skis but I didn’t feel right leaving her alone in the water for some reason. It wasn’t like I knew her or anything. Thirty seconds into our departure I returned, leaving Eli to pull mine back with him.

“Hey, I decided to stay and help. What do you need me to do?” I reached out and touched the dolphin. “Is she going to be okay?”

“I sure hope so. At least, for now, she didn’t drown, which was the first concern.”

“What do you have under her?” I swam around, looking at it.

“This is a floating device I made myself. We do a lot of rescues. I had to come up with something.” She splashed more water on the dolphin. “I appreciate the help, but you should know you’re in danger of sharks coming to check out what’s happening.”

“I figured, but the yacht is catching up and it has all the equipment to let us know if sharks are approaching.”

“That’s handy. Is it so you can play in the water?”

“I don’t usually get off the yacht like today unless we’re closer to shore.” I shook my head. “Not sure why I did it but I’m glad I did now.”

I wish I could see the rest of the face to go with that smile she just gave me.

“We’re almost back in. Thanks for your help, but your friend is coming this way on a jet ski.” She continued looking at the dolphin. “I really appreciate your assisting, but you better go.”

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