They sailed silently across the Mississippi Sound in the early morning hours, just the three of them, man, woman, and child, lifting their faces toward the far- reaching sky. The sum rose over them in benediction.
The sails swelled in the breeze like giant snow white birds straining to be free from the mast, and a pod of inquisitive dolphins appeared beside the boat.
The dolphins raced with the boat, their slick gray bodies rolling through the water in perfect formation. A small boy squealed with delight, and the breeze caught his laughter and carried it upward toward a flock of gulls winging in stark splendor toward the sun.
There was harmony between the boat and waves, a beautiful order in the flight of the gulls and the frolicking of the dolphins.
The boat sailed on, led by the dolphins, until they came to a quiet cove off Horn Island. Sea oats waved their pale gold heads, whispering secrets to the wind, and a rusty old terrapin, roused from his nap in the sun, belly flopped into the shallows. A tern called to them, and foam collected at the tide line.
Paul dropped anchor, and his wife moved into the protective lee of his arm.
"Look at him, Paul," Susan said as her son walked to the railing. Jeffy's cheeks glowed with color and his legs were sturdy. "Did you ever think we'd come this far?"
"I never doubted it for a minute."
"Jeffy and I could never have made it without you." She touched his face. "You're wonderful."
"It's because I have you and Jeffy to believe in me."
Jeffy clung to the railing with one hand and shaded his eyes with the other. Dolphins cavorted in the water below him.
"I don't see him," Jeffy said.
"Who, sweetheart?"
"Fergie."
A look of understanding passed between Susan and Paul. Fergie, who taught Jeffy to walk. Fergie, who taught them to love. In telling and retelling the stories Jeffy loved so much, they had named Fergie the Magic Dolphin, and he had taken on the proportions of myth.
On the day of Jeffy's surgery, Fergie had disappeared through the sea gate at the Oceanfront Research Center and had never returned. Bill feared the worst, but neither Susan nor Paul had the heart to tell Jeffy.
Jeffy turned from the railing. "Is it time, Paul? Can we go now?"
"We can."
It was time to fulfill a long ago promise. The three of them suited up, and Paul guided them over the side. The water was cool and green, so clear they could see forever. They splashed awhile, letting Jeffy get comfortable, then they swam into the deep.
Curious, some of the dolphins swam close and touched their legs with bottlenose snouts, then raced away. The three of them played the game of tag until Paul signaled it was time to go up.
Jeffy peered through the water, searching, searching.
Suddenly a great gray shadow appeared beside them. There was something unmistakable in the wise eyes and the special smile. Joy bloomed on Jeffy's face.
Fergie rolled, then offered his dorsal fin.
The three of them were already linked, Paul and Susan with Jeffy in the middle. Paul reached for Fergie, and the gentle giant carried them down into his underwater kingdom. The sun sent its rays far below the surface of the water. There were wonders in the deep, color and movement and sounds so strangely exotic, they seemed to be in the middle of a dream.
They glided on, the four of them, linked together by trust and love and a mysterious connection that defied understanding. Swimming silently, Fergie carried his human friends where dolphins go, and Jeffy's eyes grew big with wonder. With the precise timing and perfect understanding that had bonded them together so many months ago, Fergie at last rose to the surface.
Paul released his fin, and the great gray dolphin watched until his friends were safely aboard the sloop. With one arm around Susan and the other holding Jeffy, Paul stood at the railing. Fergie leaped high into the air, spinning in the sun. When he hit the water, he rolled to his side and lifted a dorsal fin.
"He's saying good-bye," Jeffy said. "Why is he saying good-bye?"
Tears gathered in Susan's eyes, but her husband, who understood her so well, knew they were tears of joy.
"When the magic show is over, the magician leaves the stage," Paul said, holding his wife and the son he loved as his own.
"What happens to the magic?"
"It lasts forever."
And in his heart, Paul knew it would.
-o0o-