A Woe That Is Madness
by Marty Reeder
Dorothy had no idea that her
ex-boyfriend was watching her.
In fact, she thought she was avoiding
him. AJ texted her demanding that they talk and that he would wait for her
outside her apartment. Knowing that AJ had been unstable ever since their ugly
break up six months ago, Dorothy never suspected that AJ actually anticipated
his text would drive her to Ocean Park’s largest holding take.
So Dorothy sat unaware, the
moonlight glimmering softly off of the lapping water of the nearly 1.5 million
gallon tank. Dorothy had all the look of a gypsy, with a long brown skirt,
layered with tinkling sequins and a blouse that glowed with a patchwork of
luminous colored cloth. A brightly beaded necklace and dangling wire-patterned
earrings contributed to this Bohemian look—though her glasses betrayed any
singleness of fashion with a boxy and sleek smartness that shouted of a femme
academic. Her eye shadow blinked with a metallic sheen, and her nail polish
adorned the tips of her fingers with glittery dots of bright yellow.
While this sort of eccentric
fashion stood out among Ocean Park’s employees, it is also what gave Dorothy a
unique bond to the resident of the park’s largest holding tank. The sperm whale
calf, Teddy, had been rescued after his mother was taken by Japanese whalers. He
was left injured and barely capable of swimming straight. This tragic past left
Teddy cold and wary to the staff at Ocean Park, in spite of their attempts to
help him recover so as to release him back into the wild.
But Dorothy, an assistant dolphin
trainer, caught his eye one day—her glittering garb immediately setting her
apart—and he payfully sneaked up behind her and splashed her legs.
Now as Dorothy’s legs dipped and
swayed in Teddy’s tank, she knew the tremendous mammal would greet her as he
always had in the past year, by trying to sneak up to her and splash her. The
dark water on the other end of the tank rippled and shot out moonbeams towards
Dorothy’s eyes.
“Oh Teddy,” she smiled, starting to
feel more at ease from the problems that awaited her outside the Park. “When
are you going to learn that even an adolescent sperm whale is far too humongous
to sneak up on me!”
A sudden shuffling behind her told
Dorothy that she and Teddy were not alone. A voice rasped, “What about a regular-sized
ex-boyfriend?”
Dorothy’s torso swung around, and she
saw AJ hunched behind her, his face hidden by shadows, but his eyes glinting of
malice. “AJ … I thought … I thought you were going to meet me at the apartment
…” Try as she might, she couldn’t keep her voice from wavering.
“And I thought you were going to be
my girlfriend forever.” Pause. “I guess we were both wrong.”
Dorothy’s next question remained
unasked, because AJ anticipated it. “Yeah, they took away my keys when they
fired me, so I just came in the daytime with a ticket and then hid out in the
groundskeeping shed until the place closed up and everyone went home.” He did
not need to finish up by explaining that was when he texted her, knowing that
she would retreat back to her work. He finished by saying, “It’s not
surprising, but still insulting, that you choose the company of these barbaric
creatures over me,” AJ sneered toward the tank where Dorothy’s legs
dangled.
“AJ, I never meant to hurt you, but
you changed after the accident and I—”
“Well I guess that’s where you and
I differ, Dorth, because I mean to hurt you … and you’re definitely going to
change after this ‘accident!’”
Before Dorothy could think to move,
AJ closed the distance between them with an awkward leap, exiting the shadows
and revealing a manic face accompanied by one of the tree trimmers from the
groundskeeping shed—the teeth of the small chainsaw gaping in the moonlight.
AJ’s strength surprised Dorothy.
His free hand gripped her shoulder with intensity, picking her up and then
shoving her away from the edge of Teddy’s tank. Dorothy also noticed that AJ’s
mind may have been in a frenzy, but he still thought strategically. He angled
himself so that he stood between Dorothy and the concrete pathway back to the
staff facilities. Behind her Dorothy heard the rustling of water from the shark
tank. He wouldn’t, she thought, panicking.
AJ noted her realization. “Just
your leg, Dorth. Just dip your leg in long enough to have it as mangled as
mine.” AJ slid forward his left limb as an illustration. “Look at it this way:
at least you’ll be expecting it. Those freaks caught me by surprise when I was
scrubbing the fish guts off their ledge.”
Dorothy inched back in horror
during this monologue, getting closer to the shark tank, whose ledge rose up to
her knees. AJ followed her, slowly shuffling away from the large holding tank.
The limp was all too clear in this moonlight, but instead of inciting pity, as
it normally did, it now provoked a monstrous horror. To add to this, she saw AJ
scrunch his face into a narrow viciousness, “Or if you don’t want to put your
leg in, you can let me do the work,” he lifted up the jagged maw of the hedge
trimmer to emphasize his point.
Dorothy could only shake her head
as fear gripped her. He had completely lost it. “No!” she finally squeaked,
trying not to sound desperate but failing. She shuddered as she felt the edge
of the shark tank press up against her calves. “Why are you doing this?” she
whimpered, barely loud enough to register.
He shuffled forward. “Because.
Because these savage creatures are monsters, as I found out a year ago. They
should all be destroyed. And yet, the one person I love—loved—she turns
out to take their side the minute I start talking about retribution. You talk
about these malicious animals, about that beast of a whale, like they’re your
buddies! … while the whole time your boyfriend wants some justice done
and you treat him like he’s gone mad, trying to send him to a therapist!”
Dorothy could not move back any
further, so instead her sequined skirt rustled to a stop as she listened to
AJ’s appalling appeal. “Well, Dorothy,” he continued, “I’m not going to make
you go to a therapist. I’m just going to help you see my point of view. So sit
down on that ledge and drop your leg in. If the sharks don’t seem to notice at
first, I’ll only slice you up enough that the blood will get them going.”
Tears started rolling down her
cheeks as she shook her head. But she saw the fanatical resolve in his eyes,
and the minute he lifted up the small chainsaw, she closed her eyes, rotated on
the ledge and slid one leg gingerly in the water. Almost at once, some rippling
told her that the sharks detected the change in their environment and were
investigating. She cringed, instinctively wanting to pull her leg out.
Any thoughts to that degree were
immediately shredded as the relative silence of the night air ripped apart with
the shrieking of the menacing weapon in AJ’s hand. It sputtered loud enough
that she did not hear the threats that accompanied it, though she did not need
to. Her leg stayed in the water and she clenched her jaw as something bumped
against it. The sharks had found her. Any second now, she knew she would feel a
tug and then a sharp pain accompanying it.
Waiting for that awful moment, a
crash somehow overwhelmed the rattling staccato of the trimmer. A tremendous shattering
of water swamped the concrete pathway between the two tanks and Dorothy turned
back in time to see a shape the size of a minivan slam into AJ and knock him
forward.
Dorothy snatched her leg out of the
shark tank just before jagged teeth and dead eyes could clamp down on it. She
barely had time to stand and call out Teddy’s name before a raging AJ had recovered
and restarted the hedge trimmer. “How about we make that gimp of yours go away
permanently! What do you say, monster?”
Teddy, while formidable force in
crashing out of his tank, now sat helpless on the concrete as AJ slammed the
chainsaw down just where Teddy’s fin met his body. The sperm whale calf writhed
uselessly as AJ pressed downward in a disturbing craze. So engrossed in his
work was he, that he did not even see Dorothy come up behind him with a buoy
catcher and swing it at his head with all the desperation she could muster. The
pole slammed into him and he immediately dropped the trimmer and stumbled
sideways. He just about got his legs under him, except that his bad leg buckled
one last time, causing him to trip onto the ledge of the shark tank.
The sharks, deprived of their
previous prey, were quick to fasten onto AJ’s loose hand. Before he could think
to find an anchor, the eager predators dragged him into their tank.
***
Hours later, Dorothy involuntarily
shuddered again, trying to shake the graphic scene she had witnessed out of her
mind. She had not yet moved from Teddy’s side while several marine biologists
worked on the whale’s wound. The police still had officers taking pictures and muttering
while pointing to the shark tank. Some paramedics stood uselessly to the side,
not needed but too intrigued to leave just yet.
But Dorothy ignored them all.
Instead she stroked the head of her finned companion and looked into one of his
eyes, which seemed to reflect an understanding and compassion as deep, almost,
as the sea from whence he came. Such a contrast to AJ’s wild eyes only moments
before his own destruction, she thought.
One of the biologists gave a short
exclamation and, after a moment of discussion with one of his companions, he
approached Dorothy. “What is it, Josh?” Dorothy asked. She knew him from work.
Josh lifted up an object about the
size of his palm. It was black and metallic, slickened by the dark whale blood
on it, and it showed a couple pointed edges. “Tip of a harpoon. It was lodged way
down there. That’s what had created Teddy’s swimming limp all this time. If AJ
hadn’t cut just where he did, we never would have found it, and then when Teddy
got to be too big for our enclosure, it’s pretty certain he wouldn’t have
survived back in the wild.” Josh shook his head in astonishment. “Now, it’s
looking like he’ll heal up just fine. As long as he can find a pod that likes
peculiar fashion style as much as he does, I think he’s going to be okay!”
Dorothy breathed a sigh of relief
and wrapped her arms as far as she could around her friend. “Well, Teddy, I have
to give you credit. I told you before that you couldn’t sneak up on me, but you
legitimately caught me by surprise this time.” She smiled. “Thank you.”
©2012 Marty Reeder
